THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER 


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NEW  YORK  :   DODD,  MEAD  &  COMPANY. 


The  Mind  of  the  Master 


By 

John  Watson,  D.D. 

{Ian  Maclareii) 


NEW  YORK 

DODD,  MEAD   AND   COMPANY 

1896 


COPYRIGHT,  1895,  1896 
BY   DODD,    MEAD   &  COMPANY 

All  rights  reserved 


STACK  ANNEX 

ES 
2415- 


TO  MY   PEOPLE 

IN   GRATEFUL    RECOGNITION 

OF  THEIR 

CHARITY,    LOYALTY,  AND 
PATIENCE 


2065G17 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.  JESUS  OUR   SUPREME  TEACHER 
II.  THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF   TRUTH        .  .  2$ 

III.  THE   SOVEREIGNTY   OF  CHARACTER          .  49 

IV.  AGELESS   LIFE  .... 
V.    SIN   AN   ACT  OF  SELF-WILL      . 

VI.   THE  CULTURE  OF   THE  CROSS  IO? 

VII.    FAITH  THE  SIXTH   SENSE 

VIII.  THE  LAW   OF   SPIRITUAL   GRAVITATION  1 57 

IX.    DEVOTION   TO  A   PERSON  THE   DYNAMIC 
OF   RELIGION 


viii     THE    MIND    OF    THE    MASTER 

PAGE 

X.  JUDGMENT   ACCORDING  TO  TYPE       .           .  2OI 

XI.   OPTIMISM  THE  ATTITUDE  OF   FAITH         .  22$ 

XII.    FATHERHOOD   THE    FINAL   IDEA   OF   GOD  249 

XIII.    THE    FORESIGHT    OF    FAITH         .           .           .  273 

XIV.   THE   CONTINUITY   OF    LIFE         .           .           .  295 

XV.    THE   KINGDOM  OF  GOD    ....  317 


JESUS  OUR  SUPREME  TEACHER 


JESUS  OUR  SUPREME  TEACHER 

When  Jesus  on  one  occasion  strictly  en- 
joined His  disciples  that  they  should  not 
allow  any  of  their  number  to  usurp  master- 
ship over  his  brethren,  and  commanded  them 
to  acknowledge  Him  as  the  alone  Lord  of 
the  conscience,  it  is  evident  that  He  had  in 
His  mind  the  intolerable  bondage  of  thought 
into  which  the  religious  people  of  His  day  had 
fallen.  His  own  disheartening  experience  as 
the  chief  of  God's  prophets  lent  a  keen  edge 
to  His  words,  and  are  a  complete  illustration  of 
their  meaning. 

No  teacher  ever  gave  such  pledges  of 
Divine  authority  as  Jesus ;  no  people  could 
have  been  better  prepared  for  His  evangel 
than  the  Jews.  They  had  been  set  apart 
as  in  a  cloister  that  they  might  hear  the 
Divine  voice,  and  a  succession  of  prophets  had 


4          THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

come  from  the  presence  of  God  to  declare  the 
Divine  will.  A  nation  had  been  trained  in  the 
hope  of  the  Messiah  to  wait  for  the  dayspring 
from  on  high  and  the  fulness  of  God's  king- 
dom. It  might  have  been  expected  that  this 
well-tilled  field  would  have  been  open  soil  for 
Jesus'  words,  and  one  dares  to  believe  that 
there  might  have  been  an  auspicious 'seedtime 
had  the  Jews  passed,  say,  from  Isaiah  to  Jesus, 
or  had  Jesus  come  while  the  glow  of  Daniel's 
visions  was  still  fresh. 

Unfortunately  between  the  last  of  the  great 
prophets  and  the  advent  of  Jesus  there  came 
in  one  of  the  secondary  periods  which  follow 
on  an  age  of  inspiration,  when  the  intellectual 
consciousness  of  a  people,  hitherto  running  full 
and  free,  comes  to  a  standstill  and  stagnates. 
No  teacher  of  the  first  order  arose  to  continue 
the  stream  of  revelation,  but  in  his  place  ap- 
peared that  lower  order  of  mind  to  which  the 
letter  is  everything,  on  which  the  Spirit  never 
breathes.  The  scribes  sat  in  the  seat  of  the 
prophets,  and  revelation  was  succeeded  by  ex- 
position. Under  the  hand  of  rabbis  without 
insight  or  imagination  the  life  departed  from 
Hebrew  thought,  and  nothing  was  left  but 


JESUS   OUR   SUPREME   TEACHER      5 

empty  bloodless  forms,  as  when  a  flower  is 
plucked  and  dried.  Theological  pedantry  had 
done  its  work  in  the  days  of  Jesus,  and  had  re- 
duced the  sublime  ethics  of  the  Old  Testament 
to  a  wearisome  absurdity.  The  beneficent  law 
of  rest,  so  full  of  sympathy  with  struggling 
people,  was  translated  into  a  series  of  regula- 
tions of  peddling  detail  and  incredible  childish- 
ness. The  clean  heart  of  the  prophets  sank 
into  an  endless  washing  of  hands,  and  filial 
piety  was  wantonly  outraged  that  the  temple 
taxes  might  be  swollen.  Jewish  faith  had  be- 
come a  painted  show,  a  husk  in  which  the  ker- 
nel had  withered. 

It  is,  on  first  thoughts,  inexplicable  that  any 
body  of  religious  people — and  one  must  admit 
that  the  Jews  were  the  most  religious  people 
on  the  face  of  the  earth — should  have  refused 
the  luminous  and  winsome  teaching  of  Jesus, 
and  actually  sent  Him  to  the  Cross  for  His 
Evangel.  When  one  thinks  a  little  longer,  and 
puts  himself  in  the  place  of  the  contemporaries 
of  Jesus,  it  comes  home  to  him  that  they  were 
not  really  able  to  receive  the  truth,  and  that  he 
himself  might,  in  the  same  circumstances, 
have  condemned  Jesus  as  a  blasphemer.  For 


6          THE  MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

the  irresistible  attraction  of  Jesus,  as  it  now 
seems  to  us,  was  His  reasonableness,  and 
that  was  shown  by  His  appeal  at  every  turn  to 
reality.  '  This  is  what  I  say,  and  you  will  see 
that  this  is  what  ought  to  be,'  was  ever  Jesus' 
argument ;  and  to  an  honest  mind,  without  bias 
or  preoccupation,  such  a  plea  was  unanswer- 
able. But  if  the  mind  had  long  lost  touch 
with  truth  at  first  hand,  and  was  possessed  by 
traditions  about  truth,  then  Jesus  could  have 
no  access,  and  indeed  might  be  only  offensive. 
Jesus  and  the  Jews  were  ever  at  cross  purposes 
in  this  matter.  He  made  His  appeal  past 
tradition  to  truth,  and  they  disallowed  this  ap- 
peal and  judged  Him  by  tradition  ;  and  by  this 
standard  there  can  be  no  doubt  He  was  a 
heretic. 

Jesus'  attitude  to  tradition  was  quite  clear 
and  consistent.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that 
He  denied  the  right  or  propriety  of  Jewish 
scholars  studying  and  theorizing  about  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures,  for  this  were  to  cramp 
the  just  exercise  of  human  reason.  He  would 
no  doubt  consider  it  a  fitting  tribute  to  revela- 
tion that  earnest  and  able  men  should  reason 
truth  out  into  her  farthest  conclusions  and  les- 


JESUS  OUR  SUPREME  TEACHER   7 

sons  for  the  guidance  both  of  conscience  and 
intellect.  As  it  happened,  the  work  of  a  sterile 
age  did  not  yield  much  either  of  light  or 
strength  to  generations  following.  But  that 
was  its  misfortune,  not  its  crime ;  the  rabbis  so 
far  were  within  their  rights  and  their  duty. 
Theology,  either  in  the  department  of  dogma 
or  ethics,  requires  no  justification  ;  it  only  calls 
for  limitation.  As  soon  as  they  proposed  to 
bind  their  results  upon  their  fellow-men  with 
authority,  the  scribes  passed  beyond  their  prov- 
ince and  were  guilty  of  treason  against  the  free 
commonwealth  of  God's  children.  As  dicta- 
tors of  faith  and  manners,  Jesus  resisted  them 
without  reserve  or  compromise,  and  forbade  His 
followers  to  follow  in  their  steps.  The  spiritual 
arrogance  of  the  rabbis  had  been  a  blight  on 
Judaism,  and  Jesus  desired  that  His  new  re- 
ligion should  retain  a  perennial  freshness. 
There  was  only  one  guarantee  that  Christianity 
would  not  share  the  same  fate,  and  that  was 
the  continual  return  to  Jesus. 

When  Jesus  laid  this  injunction  on  His 
Apostles,  He  surely  anticipated  the.  history  of 
His  faith  ;  and  circumstances  have  justified  His 
foresight.  It  is  a  necessity  of  the  human  mind 


8         THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

to  theorize  about  truth  ;  it  is  a  calamity  to  sub- 
stitute theories  for  truth.  One  almost  despairs 
at  times  because  we  seem  the  victims  of  an 
irresistible  tendency  to  ignore  the  real,  and  to 
be  content  with  the  artificial.  No  sooner  has 
some  man  of  genius  painted  a  picture  or  con- 
ceived a  poem,  or  even  made  a  speech  with 
moral  intention,  than  people  set  themselves  to 
invent  amazing  meanings  and  applications,  and 
raise  such  a  dust  of  controversy  that  the  orig- 
inal effect  is  utterly  lost.  We  are  amused  by 
the  societies  which  are  the  custodians  of  Rus- 
kin  and  Browning,  but  none  can  be  indifferent 
to  the  manipulation  of  Jesus'  words.  If  Jesus' 
delicate  poetry  be  reduced  to  prose,  and  the 
fair,  carved  work  of  His  parables  be  used  for 
the  building  of  prisons,  and  His  lovely  portrait 
of  God  be  '  restored '  with  grotesque  colour- 
ing, and  His  lucid  principles  of  life  be  twisted 
into  harassing  regulations,  then  Jesus  has  been 
much  wronged,  and  the  world  has  suffered  irrep- 
arable loss.  This  is  the  disaster  Jesus  dread- 
ed, and  no  one  will  deny  that  it  has,  in  some 
degree  at  least,  come  to  pass. 

The    footsteps   of    the    holy   Apostles    had 
not     died     away — concerning    whose    relation 


JESUS  OUR  SUPREME  TEACHER  9 

to  Jesus  something  will  be  said — before  the 
Fathers  arose,  and  became,  with  the  lapse  of 
time,  lords  of  the  Christian  conscience.  Great 
theologians  of  the  Middle  Ages  gradually  took 
rank  with  the  Fathers,  while  council  after  coun- 
cil, from  Nice  to  Trent,  saddled  their  accumu- 
lated dogmas  on  the  Church.  Chief  Reform- 
ers almost  literally  dictated  creeds  to  nations, 
and  the  pragmatical  seventeenth  century  forged 
a  yoke  of  doctrines  so  minute,  tedious,  and  un- 
reasonable that  it  became  too  irksome  even  for 
our  more  patient  fathers.  Every  side  of  truth 
and  every  rite  of  Jesus  was  turned  into  a  test 
by  which  honest-minded  and  simple-hearted 
disciples  of  Jesus  were  tried,  condemned,  cast 
out,  burned.  Unity  was  as  much  wanting  as 
charity,  for  Christians  in  the  matter  of  creed 
agreed  in  nothing  except  in  ignoring  the  Gos- 
pels and  persecuting  one  another.  Romans 
rest  on  the  councils  down  to  the  one  that  af- 
firmed the  infallibility  of  the  pope ;  an  An- 
glican goes  back  to  the  early  councils  and  the 
Fathers  ;  a  Lutheran  measures  his  faith  by  the 
Confession  of  Augsburg ;  and  the  Scottish 
Church  seems  to  suppose  that  Christianity  was 
only  once  thoroughly  understood,  when  an  as- 


io        THE    MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

sembly  of  English  divines  met  at  Westminster. 
Bodies  of  Christian  folk  have  also  ignored 
Jesus'  warning  against  Rabbinism,  and  have 
surrendered  their  birthright  by  allowing  them- 
selves to  be  called  by  the  names  of  men,  and 
so  we  have  Socinians,  Wesleyans,  Cameronians, 
Morisonians,  and  what  not.  One  denomina- 
tion is  called,  with  surely  some  slight  want  of 
humour,  if  not  of  reverence,  '  Lady  Hunting- 
don's Connection;'  and  so  it  is  made  evident 
that  a  masterful  woman  can  actually  found  a 
Church  and  lay  down  a  creed.  It  comes  as  a 
shock  on  one  to  attend  some  heresy  trial,  and 
hear  the  prosecution  quoting  a  foreign  divine 
of  almost  miraculous  woodenness  and  the  de- 
fendant taking  refuge  in  a  second-rate  com- 
mentator. If  you  were  to  ask,  as  is  very  natu- 
ral, why  neither  will  refer  at  once  and  finally 
to  the  words  of  Jesus,  who  can  hardly  have 
been  silent  on  any  point  of  importance,  it  would 
be  at  once  explained  that  such  a  reference  is  an 
irrelevancy  and  a  subterfuge  ;  and  one  must  ad- 
mit that  it  would  be  an  attempt  to  get  behind 
the  rabbis  to  Jesus.  But  does  it  matter  much 
what  any  rabbi  says  ?  and  is  not  the  only  vital 
question,  What  saith  the  Master? 


JESUS   OUR   SUPREME   TEACHER    n 

There  are  certain  rights  which  are  legal ; 
there  are  certain  rights  which  are  natural.  No 
law  can  take. away  the  latter,  nor  can  a  man 
divest  himself  of  them  by  any  form  of  engage- 
ment ;  and  among  the  inherent  rights  of  a  Chris- 
tian man  is  his  appeal  to  Jesus  as  the  one  Judge 
of  truth.  It  has  often  lain  dormant  in  the 
Church  ;  it  has  at  times  been  powerfully  exer- 
cised. Some  one  discovers  that  the  water  of 
life  is  clearer  and  sweeter  from  the  spring  than 
in  a  cistern,  and  shows  the  grass-grown  path  to 
the  spring.  Perhaps  there  has  been  no  long 
period  without  some  voice  summoning  Chris- 
tians to  break  away  from  the  tyranny  of  tradi- 
tion and  return  to  the  liberty  of  Jesus.  This 
has  been  the  work  of  all  Reformers  from  Tau- 
ler  to  Luther,  from  Luther  to  Wesley — to  un- 
earth the  evangel  of  Jesus  from  the  mass  of 
dogmas  and  rites  which  have  overlaid  it.  Two 
parties  have  been  in  recurring  conflict — the 
Traditionalists,  who  insist,  '  This  is  what  our 
fathers  have  said,  and  what  you  must  believe  ;' 
and  the  Evangelists,  who  declare,  '  This  is  what 
Jesus  has  said,  and  this  only  will  we  believe.' 
When  Traditionalism  has  the  upper  hand,  it 
burns  its  opponents,  as  the  Roman  Church  did 


John  Huss,  or  annoys  them,  as  the  Church  of 
England  did  Robertson  of  Brighton ;  when  Evan- 
gelism is  strong,  it  clears  an  open  space  where 
men  can  breathe  and  see  Jesus.  By-and-by 
each  evangelical  movement  loses  its  free  spirit, 
and  settles  down  into  a  new  form  of  tradition- 
alism. Brave  hands  clear  away  the  covering 
from  the  ancient  temple  of  truth,  and  then  the 
generation  following  allow  the  sand-drift  to 
cover  its  columns  once  more.  It  is  a  long  bat- 
tle between  a  handful  of  faithful  men  and 
the  desert,  and  too  often  the  desert  has 
won. 

The  spirit  of  our  day  is  so  resentful  of  tra- 
ditionalism as  to  be  even  impatient  of  theology, 
which  is  foolish ;  and  to  threaten  faith,  which 
would  be  ruin.  No  one,  however,  need  be 
alarmed,  for  there  is  good  reason  to  believe 
that  the  end  will  be  the  toleration  of  a  noble 
science  and  the  re-establishment  of  faith. 
When  workmen  come  with  pickaxe  and  shovel, 
it  is  either  to  destroy  or  to  discover,  and  the 
aim  of  present  thought  is  discovery.  Were 
earnest  men  rebelling,  against  ancient  dogmas 
because  they  were  an  integral  part  of  Jesus' 
teaching,  this  would  be  a  very  serious  matter. 


JESUS    OUR   SUPREME    TEACHER    13 

This  would  be  nothing  short  of  a  deliberate 
attack  on  Jesus.  If  they  be  only  endeavouring 
to  correct  the  results  of  theological  science  by 
the  actual  teaching  of  Jesus,  then  surely  noth- 
ing could  be  more  hopeful.  This  must  issue 
in  the  revival  of  Christianity.  There  is  no 
question  that  for  some  time  dogmatic  theology 
has  been  at  a  discount.  They  say  that  both 
the  Fathers  and  the  Puritans  are  unsaleable, 

• 

and  this  is  to  be  regretted.  But  there  can  be 
little  question  that  Biblical  theology  is  at  a 
premium,  and  this  is  of  far  more  importance. 
Never  have  there  been  so  many  Lives  of  Jesus  ; 
never  have  His  words  been  so  anxiously  studied. 
This  is  as  it  ought  to  be,  and  every  Protestant 
may  well  lift  up  his  head.  For  what  did  the 
Reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century  contend, 
but  the  right  of  Christian  men  to  build  their 
faith  at  first  hand  on  the  words  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture ?  We  are  living  in  a  second  Reformation, 
and  it  were  an  immense  blunder  for  us  to  go 
back  on  the  principle  of  all  Reformations,  and 
insist  directly  or  indirectly  that  Protestant 
councils  should  come  in  between  Christians 
and  Christ.  '  When  I  say  the  religion  of  Prot- 
estants,' wrote  Chillingworth,  '  I  do  not  un- 


i4        THE   MIND  OF   THE    MASTER 

derstand  the  doctrines  of  Luther,  or  Calvin,  or 
Melanchthon,  nor  the  Confession  of  Augsburg 
or  Geneva,  nor  the  Catechism  of  Heidelberg, 
nor  the  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England  ; 
no,  nor  the  harmony  of  all  Protestant  Confes- 
sions, but  that  wherein  they  all  agree  and 
which  they  subscribe  with  a  greater  harmony 
as  the  perfect  rule  of  their  faith  and  actions, 
that  is,  the  Bible.'  Perhaps  the  ground  princi- 
ple of  one  Reformation  was  never  more  admir- 
ably stated :  the  principle  of  our  Reformation 
is  an  advance  along  the  same  line.  The  re- 
ligion of  Protestants,  or  let  us  say  Christians,  is 
not  the  Bible  in  all  its  parts,  but  first  of  all  that 
portion  which  is  its  soul,  by  which  the  teach- 
ing of  Prophets  and  Apostles  must  itself  be 
judged — the  very  words  of  Jesus. 

As  soon  as  any  body  of  men  band  themselves 
together  for  a  common  object — whether  it  be 
making  a  railway  or  regenerating  a  world — 
they  must  come  to  an  understanding,  and 
promise  loyalty.  This  is  their  covenant,  which 
no  man  need  accept  unless  he  please,  but 
which,  after  acceptance,  he  must  keep.  When 
Jesus  founded  that  unique  society  which  He 
called  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  we  prefer  to 


JESUS   OUR   SUPREME   TEACHER    15 

call  the  Church,  it  was  necessary  He  should 
lay  down  its  basis,  and  this  is  what  He  did  in 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  For  we  ought  not 
to  think  of  that  sermon  as  a  mere  detailed  re- 
port of  one  of  His  numerous  addresses,  which 
often  sprang  from  unexpected  circumstances. 
It  was  not  a  defence  against  the  Pharisee,  like 
the  1 5th  chapter  of  St.  Luke,  or  an  explanation 
to  the  disciples,  like  the  I3th  of  St.  Matthew. 
It  was  an  elaborate  and  deliberate  utterance, 
made  by  arrangement,  and  to  a  select  audience. 
It  was  Christ's  manifesto,  and  the  constitution 
of  Christianity.  When  Jesus  opened  His 
mouth,  His  new  society  was  in  the  air.  When 
He  ceased,  every  one  knew  its  nature,  and  also 
on  what  terms  a  man  might  belong  to  it.  It 
would  be  very  difficult  to  say  which  is  the 
latest  creed  of  Christianity — there  is  always 
some  new  one  in  formation,  but  there  can  be 
no  question  which  is  the  oldest.  Among  all 
the  creeds  of  Christendom  the  only  one  which 
has  the  authority  of  Christ  Himself  is  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount.  When  one  reads  the  Creed 
which  was  given  by  Jesus,  and  the  Creeds 
which  have  been  made  by  Christians,  he  cannot 
fail  to  detect  an  immense  difference,  and  it  does 


i6        THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

not  matter  whether  he  selects  the  Nicene 
Creed  or  the  Westminster  Confession.  They 
all  have  a  family  likeness  to  each  other,  and  a 
family  unlikeness  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 
They  deal  with  different  subjects,  they  move  in 
a  different  atmosphere.  Were  the  Athanasian 
Creed  and  the  Beatitudes  printed  in  parallel 
columns,  one  would  find  it  hard  to  believe  that 
both  documents  were  virtually  intended  to 
serve  the  same  end,  to  be  a  basis  of  discipleship. 
It  is  not  that  they  vary  in  details,  insist- 
ing on  different  points  of  one  consistent  cove- 
nant, but  that  they  are  constructed  on  different 
principles.  When  one  asks,  '  What  is  a  Chris- 
tian?' the  Creeds  and  the  Sermon  not  only  do 
not  give  the  same  answer,  but  models  so 
contradictory  that  from  the  successive  speci- 
fications he  could  create  two  types  with- 
out any  apparent  resemblance.  We  all  must 
know  many  persons  who  would  pass  as 
good  Christians  by  the  Sermon,  and  be  cast 
out  by  the  Creeds,  and  many  to  whom  the 
Creeds  are  a  broad  way  and  the  Sermon  is  a  very 
strait  gate.  Since  there  is  nothing  we  ought 
to  be  more  anxious  about  than  being  true 
Christians,  there  is  nothing  we  ought  to  think 


JESUS   OUR   SUPREME   TEACHER    17 

out   more    carefully    than    this    startling    va- 
riety. 

What  must  strike  every  person  about  Jesus' 
sermon  is  that  it  is  not  metaphysical  but  ethi- 
cal. What  He  lays  stress  upon  are  such  points 
as  these :  the  Fatherhood  of  God  over  the 
human  family ;  His  perpetual  and  beneficent 
providence  for  all  His  children  ;  the  excellence 
of  simple  trust  in  God  over  the  earthly  care  of 
this  world  ;  the  obligation  of  God's  children  to 
be  like  their  Father  in  heaven ;  the  paramount 
importance  of  true  and  holy  motives ;  the 
worthlessness  of  a  merely  formal  righteous- 
ness ;  the  inestimable  value  of  heart  righteous- 
ness ;  forgiveness  of  sins  dependent  on  our  for- 
giving our  neighbour  ;  the  fulfilling  of  the  law, 
and  the  play  of  the  tender  and  passive  virtues. 
Upon  the  man  who  desired  to  be  His  disciple 
and  a  member  of  God's  Kingdom  were  laid 
the  conditions  of  a  pure  heart,  of  a  forgiving 
spirit,  of  a  helpful  hand,  of  a  heavenly  purpose, 
of  an  unworldly  mind.  Christ  did  not  ground 
His  Christianity  in  thinking,  or  in  doing,  but 
first  of  all  in  being.  It  consisted  in  a  certain 
type  of  soul — a  spiritual  shape  of  the  inner  self. 
Was  a  man  satisfied  with  this  type,  and  would 
B 


i8        THE   MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

he  aim  at  it  in  his  own  life?  Would  he  put 
his  name  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and 
place  himself  under  Jesus'  charge  for  its  accom- 
plishment P  Then  he  was  a  Christian  accord- 
ing to  the  conditions  laid  down  by  Jesus  in  the 
fresh  daybreak  of  His  religion. 

When  one  turns  to  the  Creeds,  the  situation 
has  changed,  and  he  finds  himself  in  another 
world.  They  have  nothing  to  do  with  char- 
acter ;  they  do  not  afford  an  idea  of  char- 
acter ;  they  do  not  ask  pledges  of  character  ; 
they  have  no  place  in  their  construction  for 
character.  From  their  first  word  to  the  last 
they  are  physical  or  metaphysical,  not  ethical. 
They  dwell  on  the  relation  of  the  three  Per- 
sons in  the  Holy  Trinity ;  the  Divine  and 
human  natures  in  the  Person  of  Jesus ;  His 
miraculous  birth  through  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost ;  the  connection  between  His 
sacrifice  and  the  Divine  law  ;  the  nature  of  the 
penalty  He  paid,  and  its  reference  to  His  Atone- 
ment ;  the  purposes  of  God  regarding  the  salva- 
tion of  individuals,  and  the  collision  between 
human  Will  and  Divine  ;  the  means  by  which 
grace  is  conveyed  to  the  soul ;  the  mystery 
of  the  sacraments,  and  the  intermediate  state. 


JESUS   OUR   SUPREME   TEACHER    19 

From  time  to  time  those  problems  have  been 
discussed,  and  the  conclusions  of  the  majority 
formed  into  dogmas  which  have  been  made  the 
test  of  Christianity.  If  any  person  should  de- 
cline assent  to  one  or  all  of  those  propositions, 
as  the  case  may  be, — on  the  ground  that  he 
does  not  understand  them,  for  instance, — and 
offers  instead  adherence  to  Jesus'  Creed  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  it  would  be  thought  to 
be  beside  the  question  ;  just  as  if  any  one  had 
declined  obedience  to  Jesus'  commandments, 
and  offered  instead  acceptance  of  some  theory 
of  His  Person,  the  Master  would  have  refused 
His  discipleship  with  grave  emphasis. 

It  may,  of  course,  be  urged  that  Jesus  said 
many  things  afterwards  which  must  be  added 
to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  to  form  the  com- 
plete basis  of  Christian  discipleship,  and  that 
great  discourse  is  sometimes  belittled  as  an  ele- 
mentary utterance,  to  which  comparatively 
slight  importance  should  now  be  attached.  Cer- 
tainly Jesus  did  expound  and  amplify  the  prin- 
ciples of  His  first  deliverance,  but  there  is  no 
evidence  that  He  altered  the  constitution  of  His 
Kingdom  either  by  imposing  fresh  conditions 
or  omitting  the  old.  Did  He  not  teach  on  to 


20        THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

the  Cross  that  we  stood  to  God  as  children  to 
a  Father,  and  must  do  His  will :  that  for  no  sin 
was  there  or  could  there  be  forgiveness  till  it 
was  abandoned  ;  that  the  state  of  the  soul  and 
i:  ?t  the  mere  outside  life  was  everything ;  that 
the  sacrifice  of  self,  and  not  self-aggrandisement 
was  His  method  of  salvation  ;  that  love  was  life  ? 
And  when  He  said, — '  Believe  in  Me  ;  carry  My 
Cross,'  was  He  not  calling  men  to  fulfil  His  Gos- 
pel ?  If  one  had  come  to  Christ  at  Capernaum 
or  Jerusalem,  and  said,  '  Master,  there  is  noth- 
ing I  so  desire  as  to  keep  Thy  sayings.  Wilt 
Thou  have  me,  weak  and  ignorant  although  I 
be,  as  Thy  disciple  ?  '  can  you  imagine  Christ 
then,  or  now,  or  at  any  time  interposing  with 
a  series  of  doctrinal  tests  regarding  cither  the 
being  of  God  or  the  history  of  man  ?  It  is  im- 
possible because  it  would  be  incongruous.  In- 
deed if  Christ  did  revise  and  improve  the  con- 
ditions of  discipleship,  we  should  learn  that 
from  the  last  address  in  the  upper  room.  But 
what  was  the  obligation  He  then  laid  on  the 
disciples'  conscience,  as  with  His  dying  breath  ? 
'  This  is  My  commandment,  that  ye  love  one 
another  as  I  have  loved  you.'  It  is  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  in  brief. 


JESUS   OUR   SUPREME    TEACHER    21 

No  church  since  the  early  centuries  has  had 
the  courage  to  formulate  an  ethical  creed,  for 
even  those  bodies  of  Christians  which  have  no 
written  theological  creeds,  yet  have  implicit 
affirmations  or  denials  of  doctrine  as  their  basis. 
Imagine  a  body  of  Christians  who  should  take 
their  stand  on  the  sermon  of  Jesus,  and  con- 
ceive their  creed  on  His  lines.  Imagine  how 
it  would  read,  '  I  believe  in  the  Father- 
hood of  God  ;  I  believe  in  the  words  of  Jesus ; 
I  believe  in  the  clean  heart ;  I  believe  in  the 
service  of  love  ;  I  believe  in  the  unworldly  life ; 
I  believe  in  the  Beatitudes;  I  promise  to  trust 
God  and  follow  Christ,  to  forgive  my  enemies 
and  to  seek  after  the  righteousness  of  God.' 
Could  any  form  of  words  be  more  elevated, 
more  persuasive,  more  alluring?  Do  they  not 
thrill  the  heart  and  strengthen  the  conscience  ? 
Liberty  of  thought  is  allowed ;  liberty  of  sin- 
ning is  alone  denied.  Who  would  refuse  to 
sign  this  creed  ?  They  would  come  from  the 
east,  and  the  west,  and  the  north,  and  the  south 
to  its  call,  and  even  they  who  would  hesitate 
to  bind  themselves  to  a  crusade  so  arduous 
would  admire  it,  and  long  to  be  worthy.  Does 
one  say  this  is  too  ideal,  too  unpractical,  too 


22        THE    MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

quixotic  ?  That  no  church  could  stand  and 
work  on  such  a  basis  ?  For  three  too  short  years 
the  Church  of  Christ  had  none  else,  and  it  was 
by  holy  living,  and  not  by  any  metaphysical 
subtleties,  the  Primitive  Church  lived,  and 
suffered,  and  conquered. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  TRUTH 


II 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  TRUTH 

Certain  ancient  and  mystical  theologians 
used  to  divide  the  history  of  revelation  into 
three  dispensations.  One  lasted  from  Abraham 
to  John  Baptist,  the  dispensation  of  the  Father; 
another  from  Christ's  Baptism  to  His  Ascen- 
sion, the  dispensation  of  the  Son  ;  from  Pente- 
cost to  Christ's  Second  Coming,  the  dispensa- 
tion of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Beneath  this  fantastic 
language  lay  an  accurate  idea  of  the  develop- 
ment of  truth.  First  of  all  some  one  more  re- 
ceptive and  imaginative  than  his  fellows  is 
haunted  by  the  conviction  that  God  must 
be  One,  and  sets  out  in  the  great  quest.  He 
dies  and  leaves  the  legacy  of  his  faith  to  the 
generation  following.  Some  kindred  spirit  re- 
ceives the  torch  and  blows  it  into  flame,  and 
so  the  knowledge  of  God  grows  till  men  make 
Him  the  strength  of  their  life.  This  is  the  age 


26       THE   MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

of  discovery.  At  last  a  man  appears  on  earth 
who  realises  all  that  saints  have  longed  for  and 
prophets  have  foretold,  from  Whose  face  God 
looks,  through  Whose  will  God  speaks,  beyond 
Whom  no  clearer  revelation  can  be  expected 
or  imagined.  This  is  the  age  of  possession. 
Lastly  comes  the  long  aftertime  when  men 
begin  slowly  to  understand  what  they  have 
received,  and  make  it  their  own.  This  is  the 
age  of  assimilation.  Isaiah  looked  forward  and 
anticipated  Christ,  St.  John  saw  Jesus  and  laid 
his  head  on  the  Master's  bosom.  We  hold 
Jesus'  words  and  life  in  our  hands ;  we  are 
learning  what  He  intended  and  what  He  was. 
We  live,  therefore,  in  a  very  true  sense,  in  the 
dispensation  of  His  spirit. 

Whatever  words  be  used  to  distinguish  the 
three  periods,  it  seems  at  least  clear  that  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  must  have  an  especial  value 
and  authority,  and  it  is  at  least  likely  that  the 
other  two  periods  will  be  subordinate.  Jesus 
delivered  Himself  on  this  important  matter  be- 
fore He  departed,  and  as  once  He  claimed  the 
authority  of  Master  when  He  said,  '  One  is 
Master,  even  Christ,'  so  He  now  claimed  the 
monopoly  of  truth  by  such  a  passage  as  this: 


THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF  TRUTH     27 

'  Howbeit  when  He  the  spirit  of  truth  is  come, 
He  will  guide  you  into  all  the  truth  ;  for  He 
shall  not  speak  of  Himself,  but  whatsoever  He 
shall  hear  that  shall  He  speak,  and  He  will 
show  you  things  to  come.  He  shall  glorify  me; 
for  He  shall  receive  of  Mine  and  shall  show  it 
unto  you/  Again  Jesus  said,  '  The  Comforter, 
which  is  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  the  Father  will 
send  in  my  name,  He  shall  teach  you  all  things 
and  bring  all  things  to  your  remembrance  what- 
soever I  have  said  unto  you.'  And  once  more, 
'  Henceforth  I  call  you  not  servants  ;  for  the 
servant  knoweth  not  what  his  lord  doeth :  but 
I  have  called  you  friends ;  for  all  things  that  I 
have  heard  of  my  Father  I  have  made  known 
unto  you.'  This  may  be  accepted  as  Jesus' 
deliverance  on  the  development  of  truth, 
and  the  statement  of  His  relation  to  His 
Apostles. 

One  notices  in  the  face  of  the  words  that 
Jesus  makes  a  most  distinct  and  also  a  most 
guarded  claim  as  the  prophet  of  God.  He 
does  not  assert  that  He  has  compassed  the 
length  and  breadth  of  human  knowledge.  Vast 
domains  were  left  untouched  by  Jesus,  and 
anyone  who  goes  to  our  Master  for  instruction, 


28       THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

say  in  science  or  philosophy,  can  only  be  disap- 
pointed. His  sphere  was  religion — the  charac- 
ter of  God,  the  principles  of  the  spiritual  life, 
the  forgiveness  of  sins,  the  discipline  of  the 
soul,  the  life  to  come.  Those  are  the  themes 
of  Jesus,  and  on  them  He  has  said  the  last 
word.  He  cleansed  away  the  mists  that  hung 
round  the  loftiest  reaches  of  truth,  and  has 
made  plain  the  soul's  way  unto  God.  No  one 
can  deny  that  Jesus  has  given  to  mankind  what 
deserves  to  be  called  the  truth. 

Nor  does  Jesus  mean  to  say  that  He  has  in- 
structed His  disciples  fully  in  the  truth,  for  this 
has  been  an  impossibility.  Within  three  years 
He  could  not  follow  out  to  its  conclusions  the 
revelation  He  made  of  God  and  man,  nor  apply 
His  laws  to  every  side  of  human  life.  His  ser- 
vice was  to  lay  down  the  infallible  principles  on 
which  we  could  think  rightly  on  religion.  They 
can  be  all  found  in  the  gospels ;  they  lie  to  any 
man's  hand.  Jesus  gave  the  few  axioms  of 
the  spiritual  science  on  which  its  whole  reason- 
ing can  be  surely  built.  He  placed  us  in  pos- 
session of  the  mine,  leaving  the  ages  to  mint 
its  contents  and  make  the  gold  current  coin. 
Within  the  same  discourse  Jesus  assures  His 


THE   DEVELOPMENT    OF   TRUTH    29 

disciples  that  He  had  told  them  everything  He 
knew,  and  also  that  there  were  many  more 
things  that  they  were  not  yet  able  to  receive 
which  He  would  tell  them  afterwards. 

When  Jesus  explained  that  He  had  kept 
nothing  back,  and  yet  had  much  more  to  give, 
He  was  not  contradicting  Himself,  but  only 
distinguishing  between  the  substance  and  the 
development  of  truth.  One  might  say  with 
perfect  accuracy  that  a  seed  contains  the  plant, 
stem,  ears  and  full  corn,  and  that  when  one 
gives  the  seed  he  gives  all.  Yet  this  is  not  the 
denial  of  the  spring,  and  the  summer,  and  the 
autumn  time.  After  the  same  fashion  it  may 
be  truly  said  that  if  any  speaker  should  sow  a 
living  idea  in  the  mind  of  a  receptive  hearer, 
and  that  idea  were  afterwards  cast  into  various 
forms  and  carried  into  great  actions,  both 
words  and  deeds  could  be  assigned  to  the  orig- 
inal giver.  The  germ  has  the  potency,  it  has 
also  the  very  shape  of  all  the  coming  life. 
Whatever,  therefore,  is  said  by  St.  Paul  or 
St.  John,  by  Augustine  or  Clement,  so  far  as  it 
conforms  to  type,  may  be  assigned  to  Jesus,  so 
that  while  He  said  little,  if  one  goes  by  volume 
of  speech,  and  wrote  nothing,  He  has  been 


30        THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

speaking  in  every  after  age  where  any  disciple 
has  thought  according  to  His  mind.  So  it  was 
right  to  say  that  Jesus  gave  the  Evangel  with 
His  own  lips,  to  say  also  that  the  Evangel  has 
been  continued  by  Him  through  other  lips 
unto  this  present. 

What  has  to  be  laid  down  in  the  strongest 
terms  and  held  in  perpetual  remembrance  is 
that  Jesus  gave  in  substance  final  truth,  and 
that  no  one,  apostle  or  saint,  could  or  did  add 
anything  to  the  original  deposit,  however  much 
he  might  expound  or  enforce  it.  This  is  the 
only  position  which  secures  a  consistent  and 
authoritative  standard  by  which  later  teaching 
can  be  judged,  and,  apart  from  Jesus'  own 
words,  it  is  established  by  two  arguments. 
One  is  probability  or  the  fitness  of  things.  Is 
it  likely  that  Jesus  who  came  to  declare  the 
Divine  Will  and  reveal  the  Father  would  leave 
any  truth  of  the  first  magnitude  to  be  told  by 
His  servants?  It  is  to  be  expected  that  proph- 
ets should  anticipate  Jesus'  gospel  and  that 
apostles  should  apply  it ;  but  it  were  amazing 
if  either  should  supplement  Jesus.  When  any 
person  imagines  revelation  in  Holy  Scripture 
as  a  level  plain  wherein  Abraham  or  St.  Paul 


THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF   TRUTH    31 

stand  as  high  as  Jesus,  he  gives  one  pause  ; 
when  any  person  conceives  of  revelation  as  an 
ascending  scale,  wherein  the  apostles  stand 
above  Jesus,  he  astounds  one.  If  it  be  not  an 
impiety,  it  is  surely  an  extravagance. 

Perhaps  the  argument  from  fact  may  be  still 
more  conclusive,  and  can  be  very  easily  grasped. 
It  has  happened  that  certain  doctrines  of  theol- 
ogy have  aroused  fierce  repugnance,  and  have 
been  a  grievous  stumblingblock  to  faith. 
Most  people  have  accepted  them  against  the 
instincts  of  the  heart  and  the  light  of  reason, 
because  the  alternative  seemed  to  be  the  re- 
fusal of  Christianity.  Many  people  have  aban- 
doned the  religion  of  Jesus  because  they  could 
not  accept  even  its  blessing  with  monstrous 
views  of  God  annexed.  Both  classes  would 
have  found  vast  relief  if  they  had  only  ex- 
amined the  quarter  from  which  the  texts  in 
favour  of  those  doctrines  were  drawn.  Doc- 
trines of  reprobation  may  have  some  slight 
support  in  passages,  for  instance,  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  Epistles,  wrested  for  the  most 
part  from  the  context  and  general  spirit  of  the 
writer,  but  they  have  none  in  the  discourses  of 
Jesus.  They  are  ideas  out  of  the  line  of  Jesus' 


32         THE    MIND    OF  THE    MASTER 

thought,  branches  tied  on  to  the  vine,  withering 
and  ready  for  the  burning.  One  may  accept  it 
as  a  rule  that  the  doctrines  which  rest  on  the 
gospels  are  reasonable,  and  are  living,  and  that 
the  doctrines  which  have  no  support  in  the 
gospels  are  less  than  reasonable  and  are  dying, 
which  surely  goes  far  to  show  that  Jesus' 
words  are  the  truth. 

There  was  a  day,  to  illustrate  this  point  from 
ethics,  when  good  people  defended  slavery  from 
the  Book,  and  were  understood  to  make  out  a 
strong  case.  Certainly  they  did  find  many 
passages  in  their  support,  and  made  fine  play 
with  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  Philemon.  No  Chris- 
tian man  now  believes  that  a  word  can  be  said 
for  slavery.  No  one  now  would  be  moved  by 
a  hundred  texts  in  its  favour.  Slavery  has 
been  condemned  both  by  the  spirit  and  by 
the  teaching  of  Jesus.  When  He  taught  the 
Fatherhood  of  God,  the  brotherhood  of  man 
followed,  and  the  end  of  slavery  became  a  mat- 
ter of  time.  It  is  growing  clearer  that  many 
doctrines  of  Christian  men  are  not  lasting,  but 
that  every  word  of  Jesus  is  eternal. 

It  has  been  urged  that  Jesus  was  unable  to 
give  certain  truths  of  the  first  order  to  His  dis- 


THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF   TRUTH    33 

ciplcs,  because  they  would  have  been  before 
the  event  and  therefore  unintelligible  at  the 
time.  Their  statement  had  to  be  left  to  the 
apostles,  and  without  St.  Paul  we  had  not 
possessed  to-day  a  complete  gospel.  If  there 
be  two  truths  of  this  kind,  surely  they  are  the 
sacrifice  of  Jesus  and  the  presence  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  How  could  Jesus  expound  His  death 
before  He  died,  and  explain  the  indwelling  of 
His  Spirit  before  He  came  ?  As  it  was,  how- 
ever, Jesus  did  refer  to  His  death,  its  purpose 
and  effect,  in  images  so  lucid  and  convincing 
that  they  admit  of  no  improvement.  After  all 
the  reasoning  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
one  still  turns  to  the  incident  of  Zaccheus  and 
the  utterance  of  Jesus  with  great  and  final  sat- 
isfaction. When  Jesus  declared  that  He  had 
come  to  lay  down  His  life  a  ransom  for  many, 
and  that  in  order  every  one  might  understand 
in  what  sense  He  ransomed  men  from  their  sins, 
took  the  salvation  of  Zaccheus  as  an  illus- 
tration, one  understands  the  atonement.  St. 
Paul  has  touched  excellently  in  various  letters 
on  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  his  words 
have  fed  many,  but  all  the  words  that  ever 
came  from  that  inspired  man  are  not  to  be 
c 


34     THE    MIND    OF    THE    MASTER 

compared  with  the  promise  of  the  Comforter 
given  in  the  upper  room. 

When  one  affirms  the  subordination  of  the 
Old  Testament  Scriptures  to  the  Gospels  it 
sounds  a  commonplace,  and  is  indeed  only  a  re- 
minder of  an  obvious  fact.  The  thought  of 
the  Old  Testament  moves  forward  to  the  life 
of  Jesus.  Its  conduct  is  revised  by  the  com- 
mandments of  Jesus  ;  its  piety  is  crowned  in 
Jesus'  last  discourses.  We  read  the  53rd  chap- 
ter of  Isaiah  in  order  that  we  may  visit  Calvary. 
The  Ten  Words  are  only  eclipsed  by  the  Law 
of  Love.  There  is  one  passage  dearer  than 
the  23rd  Psalm,  and  that  is  the  I4th  chapter  of 
St.  John's  Gospel.  The  faith  that  would  seek 
its  guidance  from  the  Patriarchs  rather  than 
from  the  Apostles,  and  quotes  from  its  history 
to  qualify  the  Gospels,  is  elementary  and  unde- 
veloped. The  massacre  of  the  Canaanites  may 
have  been  a  little  better  in  its  purpose  than 
the  morals  of  the  day ;  but  it  is  an  impossible 
action  for  any  Christian,  and  the  idea  of  the 
Messiah  as  the  head  of  a  righteous  Jewish 
state  was  a  noble  dream  eight  hundred  years 
before  Christ,  but  something  less  than  the 
kingdom  of  God.  One  part  of  the  Old  Testa- 


THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF   TRUTH    35 

ment  is  Christian  in  spirit  and  intention, — that 
is  justified  and  remains,  receiving  new  life  from 
Jesus.  One  part  is  less  than  Christian— that  is 
abrogated  and  disappears — replaced  by  Jesus. 

The  relation  of  the  Apostles  to  Jesus  is  a 
question  of  much  greater  difficulty,  and  de- 
mands very  careful  treatment.  When  any  one 
writes  as  if  St.  Paul  were  in  the  affair  of  teach- 
ing not  only  the  equal  of  Jesus,  but  His 
superior — giving  to  the  world  more  precious 
truth  than  the  Gospels, — he  has  surely  somewhat 
failed  in  reverence  for  the  Master.  When 
some  other  writer  feels  himself  able  to  correct 
the  Apostles  with  a  light  mind,  as  if  they  were 
ordinary  theologians,  he  may  fairly  be  charged 
with  disrespect  for  the  Master's  chief  servants. 
It  is  exasperating  to  be  offered  a  choice  be- 
tween accepting  the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke,  with 
its  three  great  parables  of  Jesus,  and  the  1st 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  with  its  ascetical 
treatment  of  marriage,  as  of  exactly  the  same 
authority  for  faith  and  marriage,  or  reducing 
St.  Paul  to  the  level  of  Tertullian  or  Calvin. 
One  is  haunted  with  the  idea,  as  he  reads  both 
the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments,  that  there 
must  be  a  centre  from  which  this  varied  litera- 


36        THE    MIND    OF    THE    MASTER 

ture  can  be  judged, — a  Master  whom  its  writers 
acknowledged — to  whom  they  approximate. 
As  there  have  been  centuries  of  the  past  when 
art  reached  a  lovely  perfection — never  again 
approached — so  there  have  also  been  centuries 
when  religion  was  touched  by  the  Divine 
Spirit.  The  fifth  century  before  Christ  was 
such  an  one  in  Greece,  when  the  Parthenon 
was  built :  the  eighth  century  before  Christ  was 
such  an  one  for  religion  in  Judaea.  If  this  was 
true  of  Isaiah's  period,  what  shall  be  said  of  the 
century  that  was  opened  by  Jesus  Himself, 
wherein  St.  Paul  wrote,  which  St.  John  closed? 
It  may  be  allowed  to  give  the  Holy  Apostles  a 
place  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  place  them  above  the  saints  of  the  genera- 
tions that  were  to  come.  Paul  was  to  Jesus  a 
slave, — he  must  ever  be  to  us  St.  Paul. 

When  one  studies  the  Epistles  he  arrives  at 
two  conclusions,  and  they  help  to  clear  up  the 
situation.  It  is  surely  evident  that  between 
the  Apostolic  writings  and  those  of  the  after 
time,  from  the  Fathers  to  present-day  theo- 
logians, there  is  a  gulf  fixed.  Certain  scholars 
may  question,  without  profanity,  the  inclu- 
sion of  the  Book  of  Esther  in  Holy  Scripture ; 


THE   DEVELOPMENT    OF   TRUTH     37 

certain  others  may  deny,  with  less  show  of 
reason,  any  useful  function  to  the  Book  of 
Ecclesiastes.  Many  value  the  Imitation  next 
to  their  Bible,  and  more  might  give  this 
place  to  the  Pilgrims  Progress.  But  no  one 
in  his  religious  senses,  however  he  may  be 
tempted  to  undervalue  some  minor  books 
in  the  canon,  or  honour  above  their  value 
some  books  of  the  later  time,  would  seri- 
ously propose  to  add  A  Kempis  and  Bun- 
yan  to  the  Epistles.  It  would  be  an  im- 
possible action,  equivalent  to  alternating  Mr. 
Holman  Hunt  and  Mr.  Long  with  Perugino 
and  Sarto.  There  is  a  difference  between  the 
old  masters  and  the  modern  which  does  not 
need  to  be  put  into  words,  because  it  is  felt  by 
people  quite  ignorant  of  art.  This  is  not  a 
depreciation  of  the  moderns :  it  is  an  apprecia- 
tion of  the  Apostles. 

In  the  same  way  it  must  surely  strike  any  one 
passing  from  the  Gospels  into  the  Epistles,  and 
comparing  the  words  of  Jesus  with  the  writings 
of  St.  Paul,  that  the  Apostle  is  less  than  his 
Master.  Between  the  Thessalonian  and  the 
Philippian  Epistles  there  is  of  course  an  im- 
mense advance  in  vision  and  charity,  and 


38       THE   MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

throughout  every  letter  there  is  a  profound 
spiritual  genius.  St.  Paul's  devotion  to  the 
Person  of  Christ,  his  grasp  of  his  Master's  teach- 
ings, his  power  in  Avorking  it  up  into  impressive 
dogma,  his  skill  in  applying  Jesus'  principles  to 
the  conduct  of  life,  his  unaffected  love  for  man 
are  so  evident,  and  so  exacting,  that  one  shrinks 
from  suggesting  that  the  Apostle  as  a  teacher  is 
less  than  the  greatest.  It  seems  almost  profan- 
ity to  criticise  St.  Paul,  but  one  may  not  make 
him  equal  to  Jesus,  without  removing  Jesus  from 
His  judgment  seat,  and  destroying  the  propor- 
tion of  Holy  Scripture.  If  one  may  be  pardoned 
his  presumption  in  hinting  at  any  imperfections 
in  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  is  not  his  style  at 
times  overwrought  by  feeling  ?  Are  not  some  of 
his  illustrations  forced  ?  Is  not  his  doctrine  often 
rabbinical,  rather  than  Christian  ?  Does  not 
one  feel  his  treatment  of  certain  subjects — say 
marriage  and  asceticism — as  somewhat  wanting 
in  sweetness  ?  One  only  makes  this  rebate  from 
the  Apostle's  excellency  in  order  to  magnify  the 
divinity  of  Jesus'  Evangel,  which  is  never  local, 
never  narrow,  never  unintelligible,  which  is  ever 
calm,  convincing,  human. 

It  is  a  grave  question  whether,  indeed,  St. 


THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF   TRUTH    39 

Paul  claimed  to  be  on  the  same  level  of  author- 
ity as  Jesus,  and  can  be  settled,  not  by  the 
production  of  passages,  but  rather  by  reference 
to  the  whole  tone  of  his  letters.  Was  he  not 
ever  the  reverent  student  and  faithful  expositor 
of  the  mind  of  Jesus,  declared  to  him  by  heaven 
and  by  the  inner  light  ?  Was  he  not  constantly 
overcome  by  the  impossibility  of  entering  fully 
into  its  fathomless  depths  ?  Did  he  not  at  every 
turn  bring  his  converts  face  to  face  with  Jesus 
and  leave  them  at  His  feet  ?  Could  one  imag- 
ine St.  Paul  declaring  that  he  had  added 
to  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  that  without 
his  Epistles  the  Gospels  would  have  had  little 
value  ?  The  question  comes  really  to  this : 
Ought  we  to  read  St.  Paul  in  the  light  of  Jesus, 
or  Jesus  in  the  light  of  St.  Paul  ?  and  it  is 
difficult  to  see  how  any  one  can  hesitate  in  his 
reply  who  believes  either  in  the  divinity  of  Jesus' 
person  or  the  divinity  of  His  teaching. 

When  Jesus  finally  committed  His  divine 
teaching  into  the  hands  of  the  eleven  apostles 
in  the  upper  room,  it  is  superfluous  to  inquire 
whether  they  understood  Him.  With  the  pos- 
sible exception  of  St.  John,  none  of  them  had 
more  than  a  faint  idea  of  Jesus'  Evangel.  What 


40       THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

a  pathetic  spectacle  it  was — Jesus  pouring  forth 
those  eternal  words  that  have  opened  heaven 
to  faith,  and  been  the  bread  of  the  soul  in 
all  ages,  and  those  honest,  dense  children  of 
Judaism  interrupting  with  their  hopeless  ques- 
tions. Did  Jesus  suppose  that  they  were  enter- 
ing into  His  mind  or  could  expound  His  words? 
He  was  under  no  fond  delusion.  Why  did  He 
place  this  priceless  treasure  in  those  uncon- 
scious hands,  and  charge  such  men  to  be  His 
preachers  ?  Because  He  was  going  to  the  Father, 
and  must  leave  His  word  in  the  hands  of  stew- 
ards who  were  His  faithful  friends.  Because, 
notwithstanding  their  slowness  of  understand- 
ing and  various  imperfections,  the  eleven  were 
the  most  spiritual  and  receptive  men  of  His  day 
and  race.  Because,  although  they  had  then 
only  a  very  poor  grasp  of  Jesus'  Evangel,  and 
were  immediately  to  forsake  the  Master,  they 
would  yet  enter  into  its  heart  and  do  greater 
works  with  Jesus'  words  than  He  had  been  able 
to  do  Himself. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  when  Jesus  had 
said  His  last  word  on  earth  and  ascended  unto  the 
Father,  it  was  not  to  cease  from  teaching  any 
more  than  from  working.  He  was  only  to  de- 


THE    DEVELOPMENT   OF   TRUTH   41 

part  in  the  flesh,  having  given  the  letter,  that  He 
might  return  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  open  up  the 
spirit.  As  a  father  He  placed  in  the  hands  of  His 
children  the  sum  of  all  His  wisdom,  not  expect- 
ing them  to  understand  it  at  first,  but  charging 
them  to  give  themselves  to  study  in  the  good 
hope  that  they  would  enter  into  it.  The  Church 
has  been  the  child,  and  the  long  history  of  doc- 
trine and  morals  has  been  the  attempt  to  possess 
Jesus'  words,  while  all  the  time  He  Himself  was 
the  Lord  of  every  one  that  trusted  in  Him.  Her 
history  as  the  disciple  of  Jesus  has  been  a  prog- 
ress from  the  second  century  unto  this  present. 
After  the  Apostolic  days,  still  bright  with  the 
after-glow  of  Jesus,  there  was  her  childhood, 
simple,  poetical,  audacious — a  time  of  allegories  ; 
her  manhood,  strenuous,  reasonable,  compre- 
hensive— a  time  of  doctrines  ;  then  will  come  her 
maturity,  calm,  charitable,  certain.  We  have 
not  seen  this  last  period  yet,  and  must  remind 
ourselves  at  every  turn  that  the  Church  has  not 
yet  compassed  the  mind  of  the  Master. 

Her  progress  in  the  understanding  of  Jesus 
has  been  most  confused — sometimes  disap- 
pointing in  its  arrestments,  sometimes  amazing 
in  its  rapidity.  Prophets  have  suddenly  arisen 


42        THE   MIND  OF   THE   MASTER 

with  a  quite  wonderful  insight  into  Jesus' 
meaning,  and  have  made  a  permanent  contribu- 
tion to  the  knowledge  of  the  Church.  They 
were  doubtless  wrong  somewhere,  but  some- 
where they  were  right,  and  their  words  remain 
a  footnote  on  the  text  of  Jesus.  Afterwards 
came  times  when  the  intelligence  of  the  Church 
simply  went  to  sleep,  and  no  true  strong  word 
was  spoken  to  the  world,  or  her  brain  grew  de- 
lirious, and  the  Church  raved  to  the  offence  of 
the  world.  There  have  been  times  of  paralysis 
and  times  of  inspiration,  but  through  both  the 
Church  has  still  been,  on  the  whole,  ad- 
vancing and  entering  into  truth.  It  may  be 
claimed  that  we  have  a  more  certain  and 
spiritual  apprehension  of  Jesus  than  our 
fathers  had,  for  which  we  deserve  no  credit : 
and  it  may  be  hoped  that  our  children  will 
know  more  than  we  do — of  which  they  may 
not  boast. 

It  must  be  frankly  acknowledged  that  the 
Church,  as  the  teaching  body  of  Christianity, 
has  often  been  wrong,  and  the  list  of  ex- 
ploded errors  suggests  various  reflections. 
Who  would  now  believe  such  doctrines  as  rep- 
robation of  human  souls  by  God,  the  denial  of 


THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF   TRUTH     43 

the  divine  Fatherhood,  and  the  identity  of  pun- 
ishment with  vengeance?  But  one  must  not 
forget  or  undervalue  the  discoveries  made  by 
Christian  thought  and  piety.  For  instance, 
the  fourth  century  wrought  out  a  theory  of 
Jesus'  person  which  may  be  misused  so  that  it 
becomes  a  stumbling-block  to  reason  instead 
of  a  help  to  faith,  but  which  stands  until  this 
day  the  most  satisfactory  key  to  a  great  mys- 
tery, and  the  most  complete  proof  of  the  unity 
of  the  spiritual  universe.  The  Reformers  faced 
the  problem  of  the  sinner  and  God,  and  lodged 
in  the  minds  of  most  thinking  men  that  no 
other  Mediator  had  ever  existed  or  was  needed 
save  the  Son  of  Man,  and  this  spiritual  fact 
can  be  held  apart  from  all  theories  of  the  atone- 
ment which  come  and  go  with  different  ages. 
The  Church  is  now  asking  what  Jesus  expects 
His  disciples  to  do  for  their  fellow-men,  and  no 
one  doubts  that  we  are  being  led  into  the 
Divine  Will.  The  service  of  man  has  always 
lain  hid  in  Jesus'  words,  but  now  it  has  been 
made  manifest  and  is  taking  hold  of  us  like  a 
revelation.  There  is  no  finality  in  this  devel- 
opment, although  from  time  to  time  the  Church 
herself  has  tried  to  set  a  bound.  Year  by  year 


44         THE    MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

Jesus'  teaching  yields  new  doctrines,  new  du- 
ties, new  motives,  new  hopes,  as  the  soil  turned 
over  and  exposed  to  the  sun  fertilizes  dormant 
seeds  and  brings  them  to  perfection. 

This  progress  is  a  convincing  evidence  of  the 
indwelling  Spirit  of  Jesus,  whom  the  Master 
promised  to  send  into  His  disciples'  hearts,  and 
whose  guidance  we  unhesitatingly  recognise  in 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Many  persons  seem 
to  believe  that  the  operations  of  Jesus'  Spirit 
closed  with  the  apostolic  period,  and  would  not 
hold  that  the  modern  Church  is  under  the  same 
divine  influence  as  the  Church  of  Judaea.  But 
this  surely  is  an  untenable,  and,  if  one  go  into 
it,  an  unbelieving  position.  No  doubt  the 
Council  of  Jerusalem,  which  had  to  decide 
whether  Christianity  was  to  be  a  Jewish  sect  or 
a  world-wide  religion,  had  a  critical  duty  to  dis- 
charge, but  not  more  serious  than  the  Council 
of  Nice  which  affirmed  Christ's  deity ;  and  if 
the  former  Council  was  justified  in  saying,  '  It 
seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost  and  to  us,'  the 
latter  had  as  much  right  to  use  the  same  pref- 
ace. If  the  Church  at  Antioch  was  moved  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  to  send  forth  Barnabas  and 
Paul  on  the  first  foreign  mission,  surely  it  was 


THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF  TRUTH    45 

by  the  inspiration  of  the  same  Spirit  that  half 
a  dozen  faithful  men  met  in  an  English  town 
and  sent  Carey  to  India.  Why  should  we 
question  that  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  was  in  the 
Council  of  Trent  and  the  Westminster  Assem- 
bly? It  was  disappointing  that  Trent  did  not 
give  relief  from  the  tyranny  of  the  priesthood  ; 
yet  it  did  reform  the  discipline  of  the  Roman 
Church  :  that  Westminster  ignored  the  evan- 
gelisation of  the  world,  yet  it  conceived  a  very 
majestic  idea  of  God.  One  does  not  forget  the 
blazing  mistakes  of  Church  Councils,  from  that 
which  ordered  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  to  the 
one  which  declared  the  infallibility  of  the  pope, 
from  the  Swiss  Synod  which  asserted  the  in- 
spiration of  the  vowel  points  in  Hebrew  to  the 
Scottish  Assembly  which  cast  out  as  a  heretic 
M'Leod  Campbell.  This  does  not  mean  that 
the  Spirit  of  Jesus  has  forsaken  His  disciples  ; 
it  only  means  that  He  is  constantly  hindered 
by  His  instruments.  It  is  not  wonderful  that 
the  Church  has  erred  ;  it  is  wonderful  that,  in 
spite  of  many  a  blundering  and  weakening  in- 
fluence, she  has  so  fully  entered  into  the  truth 
of  Jesus. 


THE   SOVEREIGNTY   OF 
CHARACTER 


Ill 

THE   SOVEREIGNTY   OF    CHARACTER 

Christians  with  a  sense  of  fitness  are  not 
ambitious  to  claim  originality  for  their  Master, 
and  have  forgotten  themselves  when  they 
ground  Jesus'  position  on  the  brilliancy  of  His 
thought.  They  shrink,  as  by  an  instinct,  from 
entering  Jesus  for  competition  with  other 
teachers,  and  have  Him  so  enshrined  in  the  soul 
that  to  praise  Him  seems  profanity.  When  a 
biographer  of  Jesus,  more  distinguished  per- 
haps by  his  laborious  detail  than  his  insight 
into  truth,  seriously  recommends  Jesus  to  the 
notice  of  the  world  by  certificates  from  Rous- 
seau and  Napoleon,  or  when  some  light-hearted 
man  of  letters  embroiders  a  needy  paragraph 
with  a  string  of  names  where  Jesus  is  wedged 
in  between  Zoroaster  and  Goethe,  the  Christian 
consciousness  is  aghast.  This  treatment  is  not 
merely  bad  taste  ;  it  is  impossible  by  any  canon 
D 


50       THE   MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

of  thought ;  it  is  as  if  one  should  compare  the 
sun  with  electric  light,  or  the  colour  of  Titian 
with  the  bloom  of  the  rose.  We  criticise  every 
other  teacher ;  we  have  an  intuition  of  Jesus. 
He  is  not  a  subject  of  study,  He  is  a  revelation 
to  the  soul — that  or  nothing.  One  does  not 
dream  of  claiming  intellectual  pre-eminence  for 
Jesus ;  one  is  ready,  at  this  point,  to  make  the 
largest  admissions.  Why  should  we  bring  Him 
into  comparison  with  Socrates  ?  He  does  not 
come  within  the  same  category,  raising  no  subtle 
problems,  nor  making  fine  swordplay  with  words. 
It  is  open  to  debate,  indeed,  whether  Jesus  said 
anything  absolutely  new,  save  when  He  taught 
the  individual  to  call  God  Father.  Very  likely, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  obiter  dicta,  you 
could  piece  out  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  from 
the  Old  Testament ;  certainly  Plato  has  a  re- 
markable anticipation  of  the  Cross.  Why  should 
we  force  the  battle  of  parallel  columns  on  the 
pedantic  minority  who  depreciate  Jesus,  and 
put  them  to  the  labour  of  wearisome  quotation 
from  the  sacred  books  of  the  East  ?  Granted, 
we  cry  at  once,  that  this  saying  and  the  other 
can  be  duplicated ;  for  even  etout  hearts  are 
now  beginning  to  fail  at  a  hint  of  S'akyamuni. 


THE  SOVEREIGNTY  OF  CHARACTER  51 

We  abandon  the  plain  before  the  heavy  artillery 
lumbers  up,  without  any  sense  of  loss.  Origi- 
nality is  not  an  addition  to  knowledge  ;  it  is 
only  a  new  arrangement  of  colour. 

Originality  in  literature  is  called  discovery  in 
science,  and  the  lonely  supremacy  of  Jesus,-, 
rests  not  on  what  He  said,  but  on  what  He  did. 
Jesus  is  absolute  Master  in  the  sphere  of  re- 
ligion, which  is  a  science  dealing  not  with  in- 
tellectual conceptions,  but  with  spiritual  facts. 
Hisjdeas  are  not  words,  they  are  laws  ;  they 
are  not  thoughts^  they  are  forces.  He  didjiot 
suggest,  He  asserted  what  He  had  seen  by  direct 
vision.  He  did  not  propose,  He  commanded  as 
one  who  knew  there  was  no  other  way.  One 
of  His  chiefjdiscoveries  was._.a__new  type  of 
character,  His  greatest  achievement  its  creation. 
It  is  now  nineteen  centuries  since  He  lived  .on 
earth,  but  to-day  in  every  country  of  the  west- 
ern world  there  are  men  differing  from  their 
neighbours,  as  Jesus  did  from  His  contempora- 
ries. Jesus  was  a  type  by  Himself,  and  they 
are  of  the  same  type.  One  of  course  does  not 
mean  that  the  type  can  be  recognised  in  every 
Christian,  or  that  it  can  be  seen  complete  in 
any,  but  that  if  you  take  a  sufficient  number  of 


52        THE    MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

Jesus'  disciples  you  will  discover  in  their  habits 
of  thinking  and  acting  a  certain  trend  of 
character,  which  was  not  known  before  Jesus 
came,  and  apart  from  His  Spirit  could  not  now 
exist,  which  also  would  die  out  in  three  genera- 
tions were  His  Spirit  withdrawn/  He  presented 
to  the  world  a  solitary  ideal,  and  in  innumer- 
able lives  He  has  made  it  real. 

When  Jesus  began  to  be  a  force  in  human 
life,  there  were  four  existent  types  on  which 
men  formed  themselves  and  which  are  still  in 
evidence.  One  is  the  moral,  and  has  the  Jew 
for  its  supreme  illustration,  with  his  faith  in 
the  eternal,  and  his  devotion  to  the  law  of 
righteousness.  The  next  is  the  intellectual, 
and  was  seen  to  perfection  in  the  Greek,  whose 
restless  curiosity  searched  out  the  reason  of 
things,  and  whose  aesthetic  taste  identified 
beauty  and  divinity.  The  third  is  the  political, 
and  stood  enthroned  at  Rome,  where  a  nation 
was  born  in  the  purple  and  dictated  order  to  the 
world.  And  the  last  is  the  commercial,  and 
had  its  forerunner  in  the  Phoenician,  who  was 
the  first  to  teach  the  power  of  enterprise  and 
the  fascination  of  wealth.  Any  other  man 
born  at  the  beginning  of  the  first  century 


THE  SOVEREIGNTY  OF  CHARACTER  53 

could  be  dropped  into  his  class,  but  Jesus 
defied  classification.  As  He  moved  among  the 
synagogues  of  Galilee,  He  was  an  endless  per- 
plexity. One  could  never  anticipate  Him.  One 
was  in  despair  to  explain  Him.  Whence  is  He  ? 
the  people  whispered  with  a  vague  sense  of  the 
problem,  for  He  marked  the  introduction  of  a 
new  form  of  life.  He  was  not  referable  to 
type  :  He  was  the  beginning  of  a  time. 

Jesus  did  not  repeat  the  role  of  Moses.  He 
did  not  forbid  His  disciples  to  steal  or  tell  lies  ; 
it  would  have  been  a  waste  of  His  power  to 
teach  the  alphabet  of  morals.  He  takes  morality 
for  granted,  and  carves  what  Moses  has  hewn. 
His  great  discourse  moves  not  in  the  sphere  of 
duty  but  in  the  atmosphere  of  love.  '  It  hath 
been  said,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour.  .  .  . 
I  say  unto  you,  Love  your  enemies.'  His  dis- 
ciples' righteousness  must '  exceed  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees.'  They  must 
not  only  do  as  much  as,  but  '  more  than  others.' 
The  legal  measure  is  morality,  and  the  overflow 
Christianity.  Jesus  stands  above  Judaism,  and 
He  is  an  alien  to  Hellenism.  Writers  without 
any  sense  of  proportion  have  tried  to  graft 
Greek  culture  on  St.  Paul  because  he  was  born 


54        THE    MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

at  Tarsus,  and  quoted  once  or  twice  from  Greek 
poets ;  but  no  one  has  suggested  that  Jesus  owed 
anything  to  letters.  He  wrote  no  book  ;  He 
formed  no  system  ;  His  words  were  jets  of  truth, 
and  chose  their  own  forms.  The  Empire  was 
not  within  the  consciousness  of  Jesus  :  His  only 
point  of  contact  with  Rome  was  the  Cross. 
When  His  following  wished  to  make  Him  a 
King,  He  shuddered  and  fled  as  from  an  insult. 
As  for  wealth,  it  seemed  so  dangerous  that  He 
laid  poverty  as  a  condition  on  His  disciples, 
and  Himself  knew  not  where  to  lay  His  head. 
You  cannot  trace  Jesus :  you  cannot  analyse 
Jesus.  His  intense  spirituality  of  soul,  His 
simplicity  of  thought,  His  continual  self-abnega- 
tion, and  His  unaffected  humility  descended  on 
a  worn-out,  hopeless  world,  like  dew  upon  the 
dry  grass. 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  has  been  until  late- 
ly very  much  shelved  by  theologians,  but  it  re- 
mains the  manifesto  of  Jesus'  religion,  and  carries 
in  spirit  His  own  irresistible  charm — the  fresh- 
ness of  new  revelation.  '  Blessed/  said  Jesus, 
opening  His  mouth  with  intention,  and  no  one 
could  have  guessed  what  would  follow.  The 
world  had  its  own  idea  of  blessedness.  Blessed  is 


THE  SOVEREIGNTY  OF  CHARACTER  55 

the  man  who  is  always  right.  Blessed  is  the  man 
who  is  satisfied  with  himself.  Blessed  is  the  man 
who  is  strong.  Blessed  is  the  man  who  rules. 
Blessed  is  the  man  who  is  rich.  Blessed 
is  the  man  who  is  popular.  Blessed  is  the  man 
who  enjoys  life.  These  are  the  beatitudes  of 
sight  and  this  present  world.  It  comes  with  a 
shock  and  opens  a  new  realm  of  thought,  that 
not  one  of  these  men  entered  Jesus'  mind  when 

He  treated  of  blessedness.     '  Blessed,'  said  Jesus, 

\ 
'  is  the  man  who  thinks  lowly  of  himself  ;  who    • 

has  passed  through  great  trials  ;  who  gives  in  and 
endures  ;  who  longs  for  perfection  ;  who  carries 
a  tender  heart  ;  who  has  a  passion  for  holiness  ; 
who  sweetens  human  life  ;  who  dares  to  be  true 
to  conscience.'  What  a  conception  of  character  ! 
Blessed  are  the  humble,  the  penitents,  the 
victims,  the  mystics,  the  philanthropists,  the 
saints,  the  mediators,  the  confessors.  For 
the  first  time  a  halo  rests  on  gentleness, 
patience,  kindness,  and  sanctity,  and  the  eight 
men  of  the  beatitudes  divide  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Jesus  afterwards  focussed  the  new  type  of 
character  in  a  lovely  illustration  which  is  not  al- 
ways appreciated  at  its  full  value,  because  we 
deny  it  perspective.  Every  reader  of  the  Gospels 


56        THE    MIND    OF    THE    MASTER 

has  marked  the  sympathy  of  Jesus  with  children. 
How  He  watched  their  games  !  How  angry  He 
was  with  His  disciples  for  belittling  them  !  How 
He  used  to  warn  men,  whatever  they  did,  never 
to  hurt  a  little  child  !  How  grateful  were  chil- 
dren's praises  when  all  others  had  turned  against 
Him !  One  is  apt  to  admire  the  beautiful  senti- 
ment, and  to  forget  that  children  were  more  to 
Jesus  than  helpless,  gentle  creatures  to  be  loved 
and  protected.  They  were  His  chief  parable  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.  As  a  type  of  charac- 
ter the  kingdom  was  like  unto  a  little  child,  and 
the  greatest  in  the  kingdom  would  be  the  most 
child-like.  According  to  Jesus,  a  well-condition- 
ed child  illustrates  better  than  anything  else  on 
earth  the  distinctive  features  of  Christian  charac- 
ter. Because  he  does  not  assert  nor  aggrandise 
himself.  Because  he  has  no  memory  for  injuries, 
and  no  room  in  his  heart  for  a  grudge.  Because 
he  has  no  previous  opinions,  and  is  not  ashamed 
to  confess  his  ignorance.  Because  he  can  imag- 
ine, and  has  the  key  of  another  world,  entering 
in  through  the  ivory  gate  and  living  amid  the 
things  unseen  and  eternal.  The  new  society  of 
Jesus  was  a  magnificent  imagination,  and  he 
who  entered  it  must  kiy  aside  the  world  sta.nd- 


THE  SOVEREIGNTY  OF  CHARACTER   57 

ards  and  ideals  of  character,  and  become  as  a 
little  child. 

Jesus  was  an  absolute  and  unreserved  be- 
liever in  character,  and  was  never  weary  of  in- 
sisting that  a  man's  soul  was  more  than  his 
environment,  and  that  he  must  be  judged  not 
by  what  he  held  and  had,  but  by  what  he  was 
and  did.  Nothing  could  be  easier  than  to  say, 
'  Lord,  Lord,'  but  that  did  not  count.  Jesus' 
demand  was  to  do  the  '  will  of  My  Father 
which  is  in  heaven/  and  all  of  this  kind  made 
one  family.  He  only  has  founded  a  kingdom 
on  the  basis  of  character;  He  only  has  dared 
to  believe  that  character  will  be  omnipotent. 
No  weapon  in  Jesus'  view  would  be  so  win- 
some, so  irresistible,  as  the  beatitudes  in  action. 
His  disciples  were  to  use  no  kind  of  force, 
neither  tradition,  nor  miracles,  nor  the  sword, 
nor  money.  They  were  to  live  as  He  lived, 
and  influence  would  conquer  the  world.  Jesus 
elected  twelve  men — one  was  a  failure — and 
trained  them  till  they  thought  with  Him,  and 
saw  with  Him.  St.  John  did  not  imitate  Jesus, 
he  assimilated  Jesus.  Each  disciple  became  a 
centre  himself,  and  so  the  kingdom  grows  by 
multiplying  and  widening  circles  of  influence. 


58        THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

The  aggression  of  Jesus  is  the  propagation  of 
character.  '  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,'  '  Ye 
are  the  light  of  the  world.'  The  victory  of 
Jesus  is  to  be  the  victory  of  character.  '  In 
the  regeneration  (Utopia)  when  the  Son  of 
Man  shall  sit  in  the  throne  of  His  glory,  ye 
also  shall  sit  upon  twelve  thrones,  judging  the 
twelve  tribes  of  Israel.' 

When  Jesus  grounds  His  religion  on  char- 
acter He  gives  a  radiant  proof  of  His  sanity 
and  wins  at  once  the  suffrages  of  reasonable 
men.  There  is  nothing  on  which  we  differ  so 
hopelessly  as  creed,  nothing  on  which  we  agree 
so  utterly  as  character.  Impanel  twelve  men 
of  clean  conscience  and  average  intelligence 
and  ask  them  to  try  some  person  by  his  opin- 
ions, and  they  may  as  well  be  discharged  at 
once.  They  will  not  agree  till  the  Greek 
Kalends.'  Ask  them  to  take  the  standard  of 
conduct,  and  they  will  bring  in  a  verdict  in  five 
minutes.  They  have  agreed  in  anticipation. 
Just  as  he  approximates  to  the  beatitudes  they 
will  pronounce  the  man  good ;  just  as  he  di- 
verges will  they  declare  him  less  than  good. 
Were  any  one  to  insinuate  a  reference  to  his 
opinions,  it  would  be  instantly  dismissed  as  an 


THE  SOVEREIGNTY  OF  CHARACTER  59 

irrelevance,  and  worse,  an  immorality,  an 
attempt  to  confuse  the  issues  of  justice. 
According  to  the  consistent  teaching  of  Jesus 
a  Christian  is  one  of  the  same  likeness  as  Him- 
self, and  nothing  will  more  certainly  debauch 
the  religious  sense  than  any  shifting  of  labels, 
so  that  one  who  keeps  Jesus'  commandments 
is  denied  His  name,  and  one  in  whom  there  is 
no  resemblance  to  Jesus  receives  it  on  grounds 
of  correct  opinion.  One  cannot  imagine  our 
Master  requiring  the  world  to  accept  a  disciple 
on  the  ground  of  the  man's  declaration  of 
faith ;  He  would  offer  to  the  world  the  test  of 
the  man's  life.  When  one  puts  in  his  faith  as 
evidence  he  is  giving  a  cheque  on  a  bank  be- 
yond reach  ;  when  he  puts  in  his  character  he 
pays  in  gold.  The  reasonableness  of  Jesus 
carries  everything  before  it.  '  Do  men  gather 
grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs  of  thistles  ?  Even  so 
every  good  tree  bringeth  forth  good  fruit,  but 
a  corrupt  tree  bringeth  forth  evil  fruit.' 
'  Wherefore  by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them.' 
With  His  appreciation  of  character  Jesus 
affords  us  a  ground  of  certitude  which  can  be 
found  nowhere  else  in  religion.  This  is  where 
Christian  ethics  have  an  enormous  advantage 


60        THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

over  Christian  theology.  One  generation  may 
build  up  a  doctrine  with  the  most  conscien- 
tious labour,  but  it  has  no  guarantee  that  the 
next — equally  earnest  and  intelligent — may  not 
reverse  it,  laying  the  emphasis  on  other  texts, 
or  influenced  by  some  other  spirit.  There  can 
be  no  finality  in  theology  :  this  is  one  of  its 
glories.  Therefore  it  must  ever  be  an  uncer- 
tain ground  of  judgment :  this  is  one  of  its  dis- 
abilities. One  century  a  Christian  is  burned 
because  he  does  not  believe  in  the  Mass,  and  in 
the  next  another  is  executed  because  he  does. 
It  were  patent  injustice  to  bind  up  salvation 
with  a  fluctuating  science ;  condemnation 
might  then  hinge  on  the  date  of  a  man's  birth, 
not  the  attitude  of  his  soul.  There  are  only 
two  departments  in  which  the  human  mind  can 
arrive  at  certainty  :  one  is  pure  mathematics, 
and  the  other  is  pure  ethics.  The  whole  must 
be  greater  than  its  part,  not  only  in  this  world 
but  in  every  other  where  the  same  rational 
order  prevails,  and  there  can  be  no  place  with- 
in the  moral  order  where  the  man  of  the  beati- 
tudes will  not  be  judged  perfect.  At  no  time 
and  in  no  circumstances  can  he  be  condemned 
or  depreciated.  Yesterday,  to-day  and  for  ever 


THE  SOVEREIGNTY  OF  CHARACTER  61 

he  is  the  bright  excellency  of  manhood. 
Again,  without  effort  and  without  argument, 
Jesus  carries  conviction  to  reason  and  con- 
science. '  Whosoever  heareth  these  sayings  of 
Mine,  and  doeth  them,  I  will  liken  him  unto  a 
wise  man,  which  built  his  house  upon  a  rock.' 
It  would,  however,  be  a  shallow  inference 
that  the  premium  Jesus  set  on  character  meant 
a  discount  on  faith,  or  that  Jesus  has  originated 
that  exasperating  contrast  between  creed  and 
life.  If  Jesus,  magnifying  character,  said  in 
one  discourse,  '  Be  ye  therefore  perfect  even  as 
your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect/  He 
made  it  plain  in  another  how  character  is 
formed :  *  Except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of 
Man  and  drink  His  blood,  ye  have  no  life  in 
you.'  He  insisted  on  being,  and  also  on  be- 
lieving, and  in  His  mind  they  fell  into  order. 
Faith  in  Him  was  the  process,  and  character 
was  the  product,  and  Jesus  with  His  supreme 
reasonableness  taught  that  the  finished  product 
and  not  the  varying  process  should  be  the  ma- 
terial of  judgment.  It  is  vain  to  expatiate  on 
the  ingenuity  of  the  machinery  if  the  sample  of 
corn  be  badly  milled ;  and  if  it  be  well  done 
the  criticism  on  the  machinery  may  be  spared. 


62       THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

If  any  one  is  so  fortunate  as  to  hold  in  his  heart 
and  in  its  fulness  the  Catholic  faith  concerning 
Jesus,  his  richly  developed  character  will  be 
the  unanswerable  vindication  of  his  creed.  If 
one,  less  fortunate,  should  miss  that  full  vision 
of  Jesus,  which  is  the  inheritance  of  the  saints, 
then  it  will  be  unnecessary  to  criticise  his  creed, 
since  a  frost-bitten  and  poverty-stricken  charac- 
ter will  be  its  swift  condemnation.  '  He  that 
abideth  in  Me  and  I  in  him,  the  same  bringeth 
forth  much  fruit '  is  Jesus'  reconciliation  of 
creed  and  character. 

One  cannot  yield  to  the  force  of  Jesus'  teach- 
ing on  character  without  facing  its  last  applica- 
tion and  asking,  Will  the  final  Assize  be  held 
on  faith  or  character  ?  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
best  public  mind  under  all  religions  has  judged 
by  character,  and  has  done  so  with  a  keen  sense 
of  justice  and  a  conviction  of  paramount  author- 
ity. When  the  individual  has  to  form  an  estimate 
of  his  neighbour  in  critical  circumstances  he  ig- 
nores his  opinions  and  weighs  his  virtues.  No 
one,  for  instance,  would  leave  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren to  the  care  of  a  trustee  because  he  hap- 
pened to  be  a  Trinitarian,  but  only  because  his 
friend  was  a  true  man  before  God.  It  is  a 


THE  SOVEREIGNTY  OF  CHARACTER   63 

working  principle  of  life  that  judgment  goes  by 
character,  and  if  in  the  end  it  should  go  by 
faith  it  might  be  in  keeping  with  some  higher 
justice  we  know  not  here ;  but  it  would  cover 
our  moral  sense  with  confusion  and  add  an- 
other to  the  unintentional  wrongs  men  have 
endured,  in  this  world,  at  their  fellows'  hands. 
It  were  useless  to  argue  about  a  matter  of 
which  we  know  nothing  and  where  speculation 
is  vain.  We  must  simply  accept  the  words  of 
Jesus,  and  it  is  an  unspeakable  relief  to  find 
our  Master  crowning  His  teaching  on  character 
with  the  scene  of  the  Last  Judgment.  The 
prophecy  of  conscience  will  not  be  put  to 
shame,  nor  the  continuity  of  this  life  be  broken. 
When  the  parabolic  form  is  reduced  and  the 
accidental  details  laid  aside,  it  remains  that  the 
Book  of  Judgment  is  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
and  that  each  soul  is  tried  by  its  likeness  to  the 
Judge  Himself.  Jesus  has  prepared  the  world 
for  a  startling  surprise,  but  it  will  not  be  the 
contradiction  of  our  present  moral  experience  : 
it  will  be  the  revelation  of  our  present  hidden 
character. 


AGELESS    LIFE 


IV 

AGELESS   LIFE 

Jesus  reigns  supreme  among  teachers  not  only 
by  the  perfection  of  His  character  but  also  by 
the  grandeur  of  His  subject.  A  prophet  has 
many  things  to  say  to  his  generation  ;  one  only 
is  his  message.  Jesus  treated  every  idea  of  the 
first  order  in  the  sphere  of  Religion ;  His 
burden  was  Life.  He  did  not  set  Himself  to 
teach  men  how  to  organise  the  state,  nor  how 
to  analyse  their  minds,  nor  how  to  discharge 
elementary  duties,  nor  how  to  form  a  science 
of  Theology.  This  was  not  because  Jesus 
despised  these  departments,  it  was  because  He 
proposed  to  dominate  them.  He  would  not 
localise  Himself  in  one  because  He  would  in- 
spire all.  Behind  the  state  is  the  individual, 
behind  the  individual  is  the  soul,  and  the  one 
question  of  the  soul  is  life.  The  soul  is  the 
organ,  and  life  the  function ;  and  although 


68        THE    MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

exact  scholars  may  be  horrified,  the  translators 
of  our  Bible  had  hold  of  the  facts  of  the  case 
when  they  used  a  certain  word  generously,  ren- 
dering it  in  one  verse  '  life'  and  in  the  next 
'  soul/  Ethical  life  implies  the  soul,  and  a 
dead  soul  is  a  contradiction  in  terms.  The 
chief  necessity  of  man  is  life,  and  when  Jesus 
opened  its  spring  He  fertilised  human  nature 
to  its  farthest  border.  He  was  not  a  Politician, 
but  the  Democracy  is  His  creation ;  He  was 
not  a  Philosopher,  but  He  has  given  us  the 
modern  metaphysic;  He  was  not  a  Moralist, 
but  He  has  inspired  the  coming  ethic  ;  He  was 
not  a  Theologian,  but  the  creeds  are  built  out 
of  His  teaching.  He  revived  the  body  of 
humanity  by  the  regeneration  of  the  individual. 
Before  Jesus,  life  was  a  wistful  longing :  it  was 
also  a  hopeless  mystery.  With  the  thinkers  of 
one  nation  it  was  a  speculation,  as  in  the 
Phczdo ;  with  the  saints  of  another  it  was  a 
vision,  as  in  the  sixteenth  Psalm.  Jesus 
brought  life  to  light  and  declared  the  doctrine 
of  immortality.  History  acknowledges  Him 
as  the  first  and  last  authority  on  the  biology  of 
the  soul,  and  experience  has  proved  Him  to  be 
the  only  medium  of  life.  Life  was  the  gift 


AGELESS   LIFE  69 

Jesus  carried  in  His  hand  ;  as  He  said,  in  His 
magnificent  way,  '  I  am  come  that  they  might 
have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  it  more 
abundantly.' 

An  instinct  is  any  part  of  our  spiritual  capital 
which  has  not  been  contributed  by  education  or 
revelation,  and  our  two  chief  instincts  are  God 
and  immortality.  The  hope  of  the  future  life  has 
always  nestled  in  the  heart  of  the  race,  and  found 
wings  upon  occasion.  When  savages  bury  his 
weapons  and  utensils  with  the  dead  man  in  order 
that  he  may  start  with  a  full  equipment,  they 
believe  that  he  is  somewhere  ;  and  when  the 
Athenians  went  out  to  Eleusis  twice  a  year,  in 
March  as  the  life  of  the  year  springs,  and  in 
September  as  it  fades,  and  held  a  solemn  func- 
tion, it  was  not  only  that  they  might  live  happily, 
but,  as  Cicero  puts  it,  '  might  die  with  a  fairer 
hope.'  The  Eleusinian  mysteries  must  have  been 
a  great  support  to  the  pious  of  the  day,  and 
served  the  purpose  of  a  conference  for  the  deep- 
ening of  spiritual  life.  This  instinct  dies  down  to 
the  root  in  the  winter  of  Agnosticism,  but  it  never 
loses  its  vitality.  Clever  people  point  out  that 
no  one  can  demonstrate  immortality, — which 
goes  without  saying ;  and  high-minded  people 


70       THE   MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

condemn  the  desire  for  continued  individuality 
as  a  subtle  form  of  selfishness, — which  is  very 
superior.  There  may  be  an  insignificant  minority 
who  would  be  content  that  their  life  should  be 
flung  back  like  a  cupful  of  water  into  the  stream 
from  which  it  was  taken.  But  to  the  race  the 
destruction  of  this  hope  would  be  irreparable, 
since  it  is  laden  with  a  wealth  of  compensation 
and  reparation.  Mourners  are  content  because 
those  '  loved  long  since  '  are  only  '  lost  awhile/ 
St.  Stephen,  cut  off  in  his  youth,  does  not  com- 
plain, because  he  sees  Jesus  standing  at  God's 
right  hand.  The  scholar  gathers  his  apparatus 
for  unending  work. 

'  What's  time  ?     Leave  Now  for  dogs  and  apes 
Man  has  Forever." 

Arthur,  betrayed  and  beaten,  does  not  despair : 

'  My  God,  Thou  hast  forgotten  me  in  my  death  :' 
'  Nay,  God  my  Christ,  I  pass,  but  shall  not  die.' 

This  sublime  instinct  Jesus  found  and  did  not 
belittle.  He  confirmed  it  with  His  sanction  and 
built  on  it  His  doctrine  of  Ageless  Life. 

It  was  not  Jesus'  function  to  add  to  our  na- 
ture; it  was  His  to  glorify  it,  and  in  His  hands 
the  instinct  of  immortality  was  raised  to  its  high- 


AGELESS    LIFE  71 

est  power.  Jesus  began  with  a  tacit  distinction 
between  existence  and  life  which  gives  a  char- 
acteristic lift  and  splendour  to  His  words.  Ex- 
istence is  physical,  and  is  dependent  on  the 
energy  that  works  in  matter.  Life  is  spiritual, 
and  is  dependent  on  the  energy  that  works  in 
mind.  One  comes  upon  a  person  that  has  not 
one  point  of  contact  with  the  thought-world  :  he 
eats,  digests,  moves, — we  say  he  exists.  One 
comes  on  another  full  of  ideas,  plans,  dreams, 
ambitions, — we  say  he  is  alive.  It  is  the  ap- 
proximate statement  of  a  fact  in  human  history. 
When  the  former  dies  we  are  not  astonished,  be- 
cause it  had  never  struck  us  that  he  was  alive. 
When  the  latter  dies  we  are  shocked,  the  disap- 
pearance of  that  radiant  man  is  a  catastrophe. 
Jesus  recognised  similar  conditions  in  the  spirit- 
ual world — existence,  which  meant  an  inert  and 
unconscious  soul,  and  life,  which  meant  a  soul 
receptive  and  active.  Mere  existence  He  called 
death,  and  used  to  startle  men  into  thinking  with 
paradoxes :  '  Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead ;' 
*  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  the  hour  is  com- 
ing and  now  is  when  the  dead  shall  hear  the  voice 
of  the  Son  of  God,  and  they  that  hear  shall  live.' 
Whether  Jesus  believed  in  the  continued  exist- 


72        THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

ence  of  this  lowest  grade  in  the  human  kingdom 
can  hardly  be  disputed  when  in  this  parable  we 
read  that  a  soul  eaten  up  by  selfishness  like 
Dives,  and  a  soul  purified  by  trial  like  Lazarus, 
both  reappeared  in  another  world.  Jesus  as- 
sumed existence  for  all,  but  existence  on  this  low 
plane  of  death  was  not  worth  His  consideration. 
Jesus  was  not  an  authority  on  existence  ;  His 
field  was  life.  He  did  not  labour  the  barren 
theory  of  conscious  immortality  apart  from  the 
condition  of  the  soul :  but  He  transforms  immor- 
tality into  Life  by  charging  immortality  with  an 
ethical  content  and  making  it  to  consist  in  the 
knowledge  of  God :  '  This  is  Life  Eternal,  that 
they  might  know  Thee  the  only  true  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent.' 

When  Jesus  invested  Life  with  its  new  mean- 
ing He  glorified  the  idea,  but  He  was  embarrass- 
ed with  the  word.  Words  were  polarized  before 
Jesus  adopted  them,  and  they  were  apt  to 
retain  their  acquired  properties  in  His  Kingdom. 
Nothing  could  have  done  full  justice  to  the 
ideas  of  Jesus  save  a  new  language,  and,  as  that 
was  impossible,  Jesus  and  His  disciples  were 
often  at  cross  purposes.  With  Him  Life  was 
something  eternal  and  absolute ;  with  them. 


AGELESS   LIFE  73 

something  limited  and  temporary.  Life  sug- 
gested nothing  to  them  at  first,  except  the  vitali- 
ty of  the  body  ;  death,  nothing  except  its  disso- 
lution. Jesus,  on  His  part,  never  used  Life  and 
Death  in  a  physical  sense  with  emphasis,  unless 
when  He  spoke  of  laying  down  His  own  Life, 
and  no  one  knows  what  was  hidden  in  that  mys- 
tery. '  I  have  power  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have 
power  to  take  it  again.'  He  reserved  the  words 
for  their  highest  use,  and  ignored  the  popular 
reading.  '  Our  friend  Lazarus,'  He  said,  with 
careful  choice  of  terms,  '  sleepeth  ;  but  I  go, 
that  I  may  awake  him  out  of  sleep.'  Lazarus, 
the  brother  of  Mary,  and  the  friend  of  Jesus, 
could  not  be  dead.  It  was  a  moral  impossi- 
bility. The  Jews  who  saw  Jesus  at  Lazarus' 
tomb  and  played  the  informer  to  the  Pharisees 
were  dead.  It  was  a  moral  necessity.  When 
the  misunderstanding  was  hopeless  Jesus  had  to 
condescend.  '  Lazarus,'  if  I  must  speak  in  your 
tongue,  '  is  dead.'  Physical  death  Jesus  refused 
to  recognise  ;  it  Was  an  incident  in  the  history  of 
Life.  Death  was  a  calamity  of  the  soul,  and  a 
living  soul  was  invulnerable.  '  I  am  the  Resur- 
rection and  the  Life :  he  that  believeth  in  Me, 
though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live :  and 


74       THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

whosoever  liveth,  and  believeth  in  Me,  shall 
never  die.'  It  was  a  brave  struggle  for  reality, 
and  liberated  the  first  disciples  from  the  bond- 
age of  the  physical ;  but  the  atmosphere  is  too 
rare  for  His  modern  disciples,  who,  for  the  most 
part,  speak  exactly  as  if  they  were  Pagans  in  the 
Street  of  Tombs  at  Athens,  instead  of  Christians 
who  had  sat  at  Jesus'  feet. 

Jesus  had  to  contend  with  a  more  inexcus- 
able misuse  which  binds  up  the  life  of  a  man, 
not  with  his  body,  but  with  his  material  envi- 
ronment. According  to  this  squalid  definition, 
Life  is  made  up  of  circumstances  ;  if  they  are 
pleasant,  the  man  has  an  easy  life  ;  if  they  are 
adverse,  he  has  a  hard  life.  Life  is  stated  in 
terms  of  food  and  raiment,  and  goods  and 
houses.  Against  this  degradation  of  life  Jesus 
lifted  up  His  voice  in  a  protest  which  admits  of 
no  answer.  He  was  never  weary  of  reminding 
His  disciples  that  such  things  could  not  con- 
stitute Life,  and  were,  indeed,  so  unworthy  as 
to  be  beneath  care.  '  A  man's  life  consisteth 
not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  which  he  pos- 
sesseth.'  '  Take  no  thought  for  your  life,  what 
ye  shall  eat,  or  what  ye  shall  drink ;  nor  yet 
for  your  body,  what  ye  shall  put  on.  Is  not 


AGELESS   LIFE  75 

the  life  more  than  meat,  and  the  body  than 
raiment  ?'  '  Labour  not  for  the  meat  which 
perisheth,  but  for  that  meat  which  endureth 
unto  everlasting  life,  which  the  Son  of  Man 
shall  give  unto  you.'  Certainly  this  indiffer- 
ence to  circumstances  was  not  due  to  any  want 
of  sympathy  with  the  labouring  and  heavy 
laden — witness  His  parables,  or  to  the  favoured 
experiences  of  His  own  life — witness  His  pov- 
erty. But  Jesus  was  anxious  to  lift  Life  above 
the  tyranny  of  circumstances  and  convince  His 
followers  that  one  could  live  like  God  Himself, 
although  he  had  a  whole  world  arrayed  against 
him  and  left  nothing  behind  him  except  a 
peasant's  garment.  And  Jesus  was  jealous 
lest  they  should  confound  the  rough  scaffolding 
of  circumstances,  within  which  the  building 
was  slowly  rising,  with  the  Temple  of  Life  it- 
self. 

Jesus  has  bequeathed  to  the  world  a  mono- 
graph on  life  (St.  John  vi.),  and  its  basal  idea  is 
Unity.  Spiritual  Life  is  not  a  series  of  isolated 
springs,  but  an  ocean  laving  every  shore.  It  is 
one  and  has  its  source  in  God,  as  Truth  and 
Righteousness  and  Love  are  one  and  stand  in 
God.  When  one  thinks  of  Life  in  man  as  one 


76        THE  MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

thing,  and  Life  in  God  as  another,  he  has  lost 
the  key  to  the  science  of  Life.  Nothing  de- 
serves the  name  of  Life  in  us  that  cannot  be 
affirmed  of  God.  Life  in  the  soul  is  the  tide 
of  the  Divine  ocean  flowing  as  it  has  opportu- 
nity through  the  narrow  channels  of  human 
nature.  Everything  else  is  only  a  colourable 
imitation  of  Life,  and  a  mode  of  existence. 
Life  is  in  its  origin  Heavenly,  and  cometh 
down.  One  must  be  '  born  from  above  '  if  he 
is  to  enter  into  Life.  Jesus  casts  His  contrast 
between  physical  and  spiritual  Life  into  a 
felicitous  figure.  '  Your  fathers  did  eat  manna 
in  the  wilderness,  and  are  dead.  This  is  the 
bread  which  cometh  down  from  Heaven,  that  a 
man  may  eat  thereof,  and  not  die.'  Life  is 
first  in  God  who  is  in  Heaven,  inaccessible,  and 
next  in  Jesus  who  is  incarnate,  and  finally  in 
any  man  who  is  in  fellowship  with  Jesus.  '  As 
the  living  Father  hath  sent  Me,  and  I  live  by 
the  Father ;  so  he  that  eateth  Me,  even  he 
shall  live  by  Me.'  This  is  Jesus'  theory  of 
Life. 

The  second  idea  which  underlies  this  dis- 
course is  Community.  Jesus  and  His  disciples 
share  the  same  Life.  He  is  the  '  Bread  of 


AGELESS   LIFE  77 

Life/  and  they  '  eat.'  Jesus  with  this  startling 
image  flashes  a  description  of  Life  and  answers 
the  question,  ever  in  the  background  of  one's 
mind,  '  What  is  Life  ? '  It  is  fellowship  with 
the  Spirit  of  Jesus,  something  that  cannot  be 
estimated  by  the  beating  of  the  pulse,  or  the 
inventory  of  a  man's  possessions,  that  must  be 
tested  by  conscience  and  the  intangible  scales 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  It  will  lie  in  a 
certain  mind,  in  a  certain  ruling  motive,  in  a 
certain  trend  of  character,  in  a  certain  obedi- 
ence of  will,  in  a  certain  passion  for  goodness, 
the  same  as  that  of  Jesus.  Or,  as  Jesus  put  it 
in  a  passage  misunderstood  too  often  by  Jews 
and  Gentiles,  yet  simple  enough  when  read  ac- 
cording to  the  mode  of  Jesus'  thinking:'  Whoso 
eateth  My  flesh,  and  drinketh  My  blood,  hath 
eternal  life.'  This  is  Jesus'  practice  of  Life. 

The  third  idea  which  inspires  the  deliverance 
of  Jesus  is  Eternity.  Again  and  again,  with 
heartening  reiteration,  Jesus  pronounces  Life 
'  everlasting,'  and  Jesus'  expression  is  evidently 
shaped  by  a  contrast.  It  is  His  appreciation  of 
Life ;  it  is  His  depreciation  of  its  travesty. 
There  is,  He  means,  what  may  by  concession 
be  called  life,  which  consists  in  health,  and  riches. 


78        THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

and  ease,  and  pleasure.  This  is  life  centred, 
and  imprisoned,  and  satisfied  in  this  present 
age.  Its  environment  is  local  and  temporary, 
and  when  it  is  shattered  this  life  must  perish, 
because  it  has  no  roots  elsewhere.  With  its 
age  it  vanishes.  He  that  findeth  this  life  shall 
lose  it.  Life,  as  Jesus  understood  it,  consisting 
of  Love  and  Sacrifice,  does  not  belong  to  any 
age  because  it  is  the  inhabitant  of  all.  Its 
roots  are  struck  into  the  unchanging  and  eter- 
nal. It  has  already  a  spiritual  environment, 
and  when  this  present  state  of  things  is  re- 
moved Life  will  rise  to  its  full  height  and  find 
itself  at  home.  This  is  Life  which  cannot  be 
lost.  Life  to-day,  it  would  have  been  life  when 
the  Pyramids  were  new,  it  will  be  Life  when 
the  earth  is  an  ice-cold  ball.  Life  is  contem- 
poraneous with  all  the  centuries,  it  anticipates 
and  closes  them.  '  Time  is  a  parenthesis  in 
eternity,'  says  a  fine  old  classic.  When  an 
earth-born  man  is  baptized  into  the  Spirit  of 
Jesus  the  brackets  are  removed  and  he  begins 
to  live  in  the  ageless  state.  '  Hethatbelieveth 
on  Me  hath  ageless  Life.'  This  is  Jesus' 
prophecy  of  life. 

Life  with  Jesus  was  a  condition  of  the  soul 


AGELESS   LIFE  79 

disentangled  from  any  physical  mode  of  exist- 
ence, and  with  this  profound  conception  before 
His  mind,  He  did  not  need  the  classical  argu- 
ments for  immortality.  One  would  be  sur- 
prised if  Jesus  proved  the  future  life  from  the 
analogies  of  nature  or  the  law  of  continuity. 
One  would  be  as  much  surprised  if  He  described 
its  circumstances  even  in  the  sublime  poetry  of 
St.  John  or  followed  the  soul  in  its  experiences 
as  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead.  For  one  moment 
we  do  wonder  why  Jesus,  who,  alone  of  all  men 
in  this  world,  had  been  within  the  veil,  did  not 
describe  at  length  the  details  of  the  unseen 
state ;  in  the  next  we  understand  such  an 
apocalypse  would  have  been  alien  to  Jesus. 
Life  before  His  eyes  was  not  divided  into  sec- 
tions, each  depending  for  its  character  on  local 
colouring.  Life  here  and  there — everywhere — 
in  its  essence  and  intention,  must  be  the  same 
— conformity  to  the  Divine  Will — an  inward 
peace  and  joy.  As  a  man  lived  here  in  this 
age,  he  would  live  in  all  the  ages  ;  carrying 
Heaven  within  Him  rather  than  going  into 
Heaven.  The  Life  of  the  soul  could  not  be 
affected  by  the  death  of  the  body.  Jesus 
would  have  considered  the  question,  '  Shall  I 


8o       THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

live  after  death  ?  '  beside  the  mark.  He  would 
have  asked,  '  Have  you  life  now?'  for  Life  is 
ageless. 

If  one  should  insist  on  proof  that  Life  is  age- 
less, then  Jesus  was  content  to  offer  Himself. 
Life  hinges  on  this  word  of  Jesus,  '  Because  I 
live,  ye  shall  live  also.'  Suppose  Jesus  was  the 
victim  of  a  fond  delusion  when  He  ignored  the 
death  of  the  body  and  preached  the  ageless 
life  of  the  soul  and  insisted  on  the  unseen,  then 
He  is  dead. 

'  And  on  His  grave  with  shining  eyes 
The  Syrian  stars  look  down.' 

Suppose  He  knew,  when  He  declared  Life 
the  supreme  fact  of  human  experience,  and 
death  the  escape  of  the  butterfly  from  the 
chrysalis  and  the  world  a  passing  show,  then 
Jesus  is  alive  evermore.  How  can  one  be  cer- 
tain that  Jesus  is  with  God?  It  is  a  question 
of  the  last  importance.  There  are  four  lines  of 
proof.  The  first  is  to  lead  reliable  evidence 
that  Jesus  rose  from  Joseph's  tomb — this  is  for 
a  lawyer.  The  second  is  historical — the  ex- 
istence of  the  Christian  Church — this  is  for  a 
scholar.  The  third  is  mystical — the  experience 


AGELESS  LIFE  81 

of  Christians — this  is  for  a  saint.  The  fourth 
is  ethical — the  nature  of  Jesus'  life — this  is  for 
every  one.  The  last  is  the  most  akin  to  the 
mind  of  Jesus,  xvho  was  accustomed  to  insist  on 
the  self-evidencing  power  of  His  life.  He  is 
alive  because  He  could  not  die.  '  I  am  the 
Resurrection  and  the  Life.' 

It  is  impossible  to  appreciate  a  picture  with 
your  face  at  the  canvas  ;  but  even  His  blind 
generation  were  arrested  by  Jesus.  There  was  a 
note  in  His  words  that  caught  their  ear,  the  echo 
of  Divine  authority ;  there  was  an  air  about 
Him,  the  manner  of  a  larger  world.  No  man 
could  convince  Him  of  sin,  none  confound  Him. 
He  was  ever  beyond  criticism.  He  ever  com- 
pelled admiration  in  honest  men.  '  Thou  art 
the  Christ,"  said  a  Jewish  peasant  with  instinctive 
conviction,  '  the  Son  of  the  Living  God.'  Cen- 
turies have  only  confirmed  this  spontaneous 
tribute  to  Jesus'  life.  No  one  has  yet  discovered 
the  word  Jesus  ought  not  to  have  said,  none  sug- 
gested the  better  word  He  might  have  said.  No 
action  of  His  has  shocked  our  moral  sense  ;  none 
has  fallen  short  of  the  ideal.  He  is  full  of  sur- 
prises, but  they  are  all  the  surprises  of  per- 
fection. You  arc  never  amazed,  one  day 
F 


82       THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

by  His  greatness,  the  next  by  His  littleness. 
You  are  ever  amazed  that  He  is  incompara- 
bly better  than  you  could  have  expected. 
He  is  tender  without  being  weak,  strong  with- 
out being  coarse,  lowly  without  being  servile. 

/ 

He  has  conviction  without  intolerance,  enthusi- 
asm without  fanaticism,  holiness  without  Phari- 
saism, passion  without  prejudice.  This  Man 
alone  never  made  a  false  step,  never  struck  a 
jarring  note.  His  life  alone  moved  on  those 
high  levels  where  local  limitations  are  tran- 
scended and  the  absolute  Law  of  Moral  Beauty 
prevails.  It  was  life  at  its  highest.  Jesus  was 
the  supreme  Artist  in  Life,  and  had  a  right  to 
say,  '  I  am  the  Life.' 

Was  this  Life  something  that  could  be 
quenched  by  death  or  that  death  could  touch  ? 
Granted  that  they  scourged  and  crucified  Jesus' 
body,  that  it  died  and  was  buried.  Could  Jesus 
who  gave  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  the 
discourse  of  the  upper  room,  who  satisfied  St. 
John  and  loosed  St.  Mary  Magdalene  from  her 
sin,  and  who  remains  the  unapproachable  ideal 
of  perfection,  be  annihilated  by  a  few  nails  and 
the  thrust  of  a  Roman  spear?  If  the  lowest 
form  of  energy,  however  it  may  be  transformed 


AGELESS   LIFE  83 

or  degraded,  be  still  conserved  in  some  shape 
and  place,  can  any  one  believe  that  the  Author 
of  Life  in  this  world  was  extinguished  OBI  a 
Roman  cross  ?  The  certainty  of  Jesus'  Resur- 
rection does  not  rest  in  the  last  issue  on  His 
isolated  appearances  during  the  forty  days ;  it 
rests  on  His  Life  for  thirty-three  years.  His 
Life  was  beyond  the  reach  of  death  ;  it  was 
Ageless  Life. 

Jesus'  Life  impressed  His  generation  as  un- 
paralleled and  inexplicable,  a  Life  with  inscru- 
table motives  and  incalculable  principles.  What 
was  its  explanation  according  to  any  known 
standard?  Jesus  was  accustomed  frankly  to 
admit  that  it  had  non-e  ;  that  it  was  an  enigma 
from  the  earthly  standpoint.  But  He  pleaded 
that  it  was  supreme  and  reasonable  from  the 
Heavenly  standpoint.  It  was  foreign  here  ;  it 
was  natural  elsewhere.  He  did  the  works  He 
had  seen  His  Father  do,  He  said  the  words  He 
had  received  of  His  Father,  He  fulfilled  the 
will  of  His  Father,  There  was  a  sphere  where 
His  Life  was  the  rule,  where  His  dialect  was 
the  language  of  the  country  and  His  was  the 
habit  of  living.  His  unlikeness  to  this  world 
implies  His  likeness  to  another  world.  One 


84        THE    MIND  OF   THE   MASTER 

/  evening  you  find  among  the  reeds  of  your  lake 
an  unknown  bird,  whose  broad  breast  and  pow- 
erful pinions  are  not  meant  for  this  inland 
scene.  It  is  resting  midway  between  two 
oceans,  and  by  to-morrow  will  have  gone. 
Does  not  that  bird  prove  the  ocean  it  left,  does 
it  not  prove  the  ocean  whither  it  has  flown  ? 
'  Jesus,  knowing  .  .  .  that  He  was  come  from 
God  and  went  to  God,'  is  the  Revelation  and 
Confirmation  of  Ageless  Life. 


SIN   AN   ACT   OF   SELF-WILL 


V 

SIN  AN  ACT  OF  SELF-WILL 

Sin  is  the  ghost  which  haunts  Literature,  a 
shadow  on  human  life,  which  no  one  admits  he 
has  seen,  and  which  an  hour  afterwards  asserts 
itself.  Define  sin  with  anything  like  accuracy, 
and  it  will  be  denied  ;  be  silent  as  if  you  had  not 
heard  of  sin,  and  it  will  be  confessed.  Literature 
oscillates  between  extremes,  and  affords  an  in- 
structive contradiction.  As  the  record  of  human 
experience  it  must  chronicle  sin  ;  as  the  solace  of 
the  individual,  it  makes  a  brave  effort  to  ignore 
sin.  You  hear  the  moan  of  this  calamity  through 
all  the  work  of  Sophocles,  but  Aristophanes 
persuades  you  that  this  is  the  gayest  of  worlds, 
and  both  voices  were  heard  in  the  same  theatre 
beneath  the  shadow  of  enthroned  Wisdom. 
Juvenal's  mordant  satire  lays  bare  the  ulcerous 
Roman  life,  but  Catullus  flings  a  wreath  of  roses 
over  it,  and  they  were  both  poets  of  the  classical 


88         THE    MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

age.  A  French  novelist,  with  an  unholy  mastery 
of  his  craft,  steeps  us  in  the  horrors  of  a  decadent 
society.  A  French  critic,  with  the  airiest  grace, 
exclaims:  'Sin,  I  have  abolished  it.'  Our  own 
poet  of  unbelief  has  dared  to  write,  revealing  the 
thoughts  of  many  hearts : — 

'  Alas,  Lord  !  surely  Thou  art  great  and  fair, 
But,  lo  !  her  wonderfully  woven  hair  ; 
And  Thou  didst  heal  us  with  Thy  piteous  kiss  ; 
But  see  now,  Lord,  her  mouth  is  lovelier.' 

Yet  he  also  allows  the  secret  to  ooze  out — 
'  The  brief,  bitter  bliss  one  has  for  a  great  sin.' 

Literature  has  confessed  this  mysterious  presence 
twice  over,  in  the  hopeless  sadness  of  the  austere 
school  which  acknowledges  it,  in  the  nervous 
anxiety  of  the  lighter  school  which  scoffs  at  it. 
Philosophy  has  been,  for  the  most  part,  dis- 
tinguished by  its  strenuous  treatment  of  the 
moral  problem,  but  has  been  visibly  hampered  by 
circumstances,  being  in  the  position  of  a  court 
which  cannot  go  into  the  whole  case.  Sin  may 
be  only  a  defect,  then  philosophy  can  cope  with 
the  position  ;  but  it  is  at  least  possible  that  sin 
may  be  a  collision  with  the  will  of  God,  then 
philosophy  can  afford  no  help.  Spiritual  affairs 


SIN   AN   ACT    OF    SELF-WILL         89 

are  beyond  its  jurisdiction  ;  they  belong  to  the 
department  of  Religion.  Within  the  range  of 
philosophy  the  Race  has  not  gone  astray — it  has 
simply  not  arrived  :  humanity  is  not  diseased — 
it  is  only  poorly  developed.  This  deliverance  is 
not  the  fault,  it  is  the  misfortune  of  morals  ;  but 
it  must  always  seem  shallow  and  unworthy  to 
serious  minds.  It  creates  the  demand  for  Re- 
ligion. If  your  chest  be  narrow,  you  go  to  a 
gymnast ;  if  it  be  diseased,  you  go  to  a  physician. 
It  is  easy  to  add  three  inches  to  the  chest  cavity ; 
it  is  less  easy  to  kill  the  bacilli  in  the  lungs. 
There  can  indeed  be  no  real  competition  between 
Philosophy  and  Religion,  for  the  former  cannot 
go  beyond  hygiene,  and  the  latter  must  begin 
at  least  with  therapeutics. 

'The  cardinal  question  is  that  of  sin,'  says 
Amiel,  with  his  fine  ethical  insight ;  and  if  it  be 
an  essential  condition  in  every  religion  that  it 
deal  with  sin,  then,  excluding  Judaism  as  a  pro- 
visional and  prophetic  faith,  there  are  only  two 
religions.  One  is  Christianity,  and  the  other 
is  Buddhism,  and  the  disciples  of  Jesus  need  not 
fear  a  comparison.  When  Jesus  and  the  founder 
of  Buddhism  address  themselves  to  the  problem 
of  evil,  the  '  Light  of  Asia '  is  simply  a  foil  to  our 


9o       THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

Master.  Buddha  identified  evil  with  the  material 
influences  of  the  body,  as  if  a  disembodied  spirit 
could  not  be  proud  and  envious ;  Jesus  traced 
evil  to  the  will,  and  ignored  the  body.  Buddha 
proposes  to  train  the  soul  by  a  life  of  meditation, 
as  if  inaction  could  be  the  nursery  of  character; 
Jesus  insists  on  action,  the  most  unremitting  and 
intense.  Finally,  the  great  Eastern  sage  held  out 
the  hope  of  escape  from  individual  existence,  as 
if  that  were  the  last  reward  for  the  tried  soul ; 
our  Master  promised  perfection  in  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.  Both  systems  recognise  the  supreme 
need  of  the  Race,  which  is  a  favourable  omen : 
they  differ  in  the  means  of  its  relief.  Buddhism 
amounts  to  the  destruction  of  the  disease,  and 
the  extinction  of  the  patient.  Christianity 
compasses  the  destruction  of  the  disease,  and  the 
salvation  of  the  soul.  Tried  by  the  severest  test 
of  a  Religion,  Jesus  alone  out  of  all  masters 
remains :  He  saves  '  His  people  from  their  sins.' 
If  Jesus  had  never  said  one  word,  yet  had  He 
done  more  than  all  writers  on  sin,  for  His  life  was 
its  everlasting  exposure.  As  the  undriven  snow 
puts  to  shame  the  whitest  garment,  so  was  Jesus 
a  new  standard  of  holiness  to  His  society,  and  as 
the  lightning  plays  round  the  steel  rod,  so  did 


SIN    AN   ACT    OF   SELF-WILL         91 

the  diffused  wickedness  of  His  time  concentrate 
on  His  head.  Pharisees  in  a  heat  of  pseudo- 
morality  became  self-conscious,  and  slunk  from 
His  presence,  Who  could  not  look  at  them,  and 
an  honest  man  of  vast  self-conceit  beheld  in  a 
sudden  flash  the  moral  glory  of  Jesus,  and  be- 
sought Him  to  depart.  Twice  Jesus  was  carried 
beyond  Himself  by  anger — once  when  St.  Peter 
tempted  Him  to  selfishness,  and  He  identified 
the  amazed  apostle  with  Satan  ;  once  when  the 
hyprocisy  of  the  Pharisees  came  to  a  head,  and 
His  indignation  burst  forth  in  the  invective  of 
history.  He  shudders  visibly  in  the  Gospels 
before  the  loathsome  leprosy  of  sin,  while  His 
compassions  lighten  on  the  sinner,  and  in  the 
same  Gospels  we  see  the  hatred  of  the  world 
culminate  in  the  Cross,  because  Jesus  did  the 
works  of  God.  The  personality  of  Jesus  called 
the  principle  of  evil  into  full  action,  and  sin  was 
an  open  secret  before  His  eyes. 

The  conventional  history  of  sin  has  three 
chapters — origin,  nature,  treatment.  It  is  char- 
acteristic of  Jesus  that  He  has  only  two :  He 
omits  genesis  and  proceeds  to  diagnosis.  It  is 
for  an  instant  a  disappointment,  and  in  the 
next  a  relief :  it  remains  forever  a  lesson. 


92        THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

Among  all  the  problems  upon  which  the  human 
intellect  has  tried  its  teeth,  the  origin  of  evil  is 
the  most  useless  and  hopeless,  the  most  fasci- 
nating and  maddening.  Eastern  religions  have 
played  the  fool  with  it,  Christian  theology  has 
laboured  it  without  conspicuous  success.  Sci- 
ence has  recently  been  dallying  with  it.  It  is  a 
kind  of  whirlpool  which  sucks  in  the  most  sub- 
tle intellects,  and  reduces  them  to  confusion. 
Jesus  did  not  once  approach  the  subject :  He 
alone  had  the  courage  to  leave  it  in  shadow. 
As  a  consequence  He  has  offered  another  pledge 
of  His  reasonableness,  and  removed  a  stum- 
bling-block from  the  doctrine  of  sin.  Jesus' 
silence  did  not  arise  from  indifference  to  the 
law  of  heredity,  for  He  traced  the  blind  hostility 
of  the  Pharisees  to  the  bigotry  of  their  fathers, 
and  saw  in  the  sin  of  His  crucifixion  the  legiti- 
mate outcome  of  ages  of  fanaticism.  But  He 
foresaw  how  the  moral  sense  might  be  perverted 
by  wild  applications  of  the  law,  as  when  His  dis- 
ciples asked,  '  Who  did  sin,  this  man  or  his 
parents,  that  he  was  born  blind  ?  '  Jesus  would, 
no  doubt,  know  the  Rabbinical  theory  of 
Adam,  although  He  escaped  St.  Paul's  doubtful 
advantage,  and  had  not  been  educated  in  the 


SIN   AN   ACT    OF    SELF-WILL         93 

schools;  but  one  feels  by  an  instinct  that 
Jesus'  missing  discourse  on  the  '  Federal  Rela- 
tionship '  would  not  fit  in  well  between  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  the  Farewell  of  the 
Last  Supper.  Jesus  must  have  been  taught 
the  story  of  the  Fall,  and  in  after  years  He  en- 
dorsed its  teaching.  He  clothed  that  lovely\ 
idyll  with  a  modern  dress,  and  sent  it  out  as  f 
the  Parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son.  It  is  always 
a  startling  transition  from  the  theologians  to 
Jesus,  and  it  gives  one  pause  that  the  supreme 
Teacher  of  religion  did  not  deliver  Himself  on 
original  sin.  But  it  is  a  fact,  and  Jesus  had 
His  reasons. 

For  one  thing,  any  insistence  on  heredity 
would  have  depreciated  responsibility,  and 
Jesus  held  every  man  to  his  own  sin.  Science 
and  theology  have  joined  hands  in  magnifying 
heredity  and  lowering  individuality,  till  a  man 
comes  to  be  little  more  than  the  resultant  of 
certain  forces,  a  projectile  shot  forth  from  the 
past,  and  describing  a  calculated  course.  Jesus 
made  a  brave  stand  for  each  man  as  the  pos- 
sessor of  will-power,  and  master  of  his  life.  He 
sadly  admitted  that  a  human  will  might  be 
weakened  by  evil  habits  of  thought  ?  He  de- 


94        THE   MIND   OF  THE  MASTER 

clared  gladly  that  the  Divine  Grace  reinforced 
the  halting  will :  but,  with  every  qualification, 
decision  still  rested  in  the  last  issue  with  the 
man.  '  If  Thou  wilt,  Thou  canst  make  me 
clean/  as  if  his  cure  hinged  on  the  Divine  Will. 
Of  course,  I  am  willing,  said  Jesus,  and  referred 
the  man  back  to  his  inalienable  human  rights. 
Jesus  never  diverged  into  metaphysics,  even  to 
reconcile  the  freedom  of  the  human  will  with 
the  sovereignty  of  the  Divine.  His  function 
was  not  academic  debate,  it  was  the  solution  of 
an  actual  situation.  Logically,  men  might  be 
puppets  ;  consciously,  they  were  self-determi- 
nating, and  Jesus  said  with  emphasis,  '  Wilt 
thou  ? ' 

*Jesus  had  another  interest  in  isolating  the 
individual*  and  declining  to  comprehend  him  in 
the  race — He  compelled  his  attention.  Noth- 
ing could  have  afforded  the  Pharisees  more 
satisfaction  than  a  discussion  on  sin.  Nothing 
was  more  uncomfortable  than  an  examination 
into  their  particular  sins.  A  million  needle 
points  pressed  together  make  a  smooth  sub- 
stance, but  one  is  intolerable.  Jesus  touched 
the  conscience  as  with  a  needle  prick*'for  which 
He  received  homage  from  honest  men,  and 


SIN    AN    ACT  OF  SELF-WILL         95 

the  cross  from  the  dishonest.  Before  and  since 
Jesus'  day  people  have  been  invited  to  hold  an 
inquest  on  the  sin  of  Adam,  and  have  dis- 
charged this  function  with  keen  intellectual  in- 
terest. It  was  Jesus  who  made__sj_il  of  even 
date,  and^  invited  every  hearer  to  see  the  trag- 
edy of  Eden  in  his  own  experience^ 

If  one  be  still  disappointed  with  the  marked 
silence  of  Jesus  on  the  genesis  of  sin,  let  him 
find  his  compensation  in  Jesus'  final  analysis  of 
sin.  Our  Master  was  not  accustomed  to  lay 
down  a  definition,  and  make  it  a  catchword,  or 
to  propose  a  subject  and  expound  it  to  exhaus- 
tion. He  does  not  equip  us  with  a  theory  to 
be  associated  with  His  name.  His  method 
was  worthy  of  Himself,  who  alone  could  say, 
'  Verily,  verily,'  and  was  becoming  to  spiritual 
truth,  which  is  above  theories.  It  was  not  the 
brilliant  play  of  artificial  light  on  a  selected  ob- 
ject ;  it jwas  the  risingj)f  the  sun  on  _th_e  whole 
sum  of  things,  a  gradual,  silent,  irresistible  illumi- 
nation before^  which  one  saw_the  wreaths  of  mist 
lift,  and  the  recesses  of  the  valleys  laid  open. 
While  Jesus  is  teaching  by  allusions  to  sin,  by 
revelations  of  the  state  of  holiness,  by  the  clin- 
ical treatment  of  sinners,  by  incidental  glimpses 


96       THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

of  His  own  experience  in  temptation,  a  com- 
plete and  full-rounded  idea  of  sin  grows  before 
the  mind.  His  disciples  hold  it,  for  the  most 
part,  in  unconsciousness  ;  as  soon  as  they  iden- 
tify it,  Jesus'  idea  is  verified. 

Two  teachers  had  attempted  the  diagnosis  of 
sin  before  Jesus,  and  Jesus  included  their  con- 
clusions. Moses  had  wrought  into  the  warp 
and  woof  of  Jewish  conscience  the  conviction 
that  sin  was  a  crime  against  the  Eternal,  and 
the  Psalmists  had  invested  this  view  with  sin- 
gular pathos.  It  mattered  not  what  wrong  a 
man  did  ;  it  was  in  the  last  issue  the  heart  of 
God  he  touched.  And  God  only  could  loose 
him  from  the  intolerable  burden  of  guilt.  Sin 
was  not  only  the  transgression  of  a  law  written  on 
the  conscience,  it  was  a  personal  offence  against 
the  Divine  love.  Jewish  penitence  therefore 
was  very  tender  and  humble.  '  Against  Thee, 
Thee  only  have  I  sinned.'  Jesus,  in  his  Mono- 
graph on  sin,  incorporates  this  discovery  when 
He  makes  the  prodigal  say,  '  Father,  I  have 
sinned  against  heaven  and  in  Thy  sight,'  when 
He  teaches  to  pray,  '  Forgive  us  our  tres- 
passes as  \vc  forgive  them  that  trespass  against 
us.'  Jesus  took  for  granted  that  sin  was  a  crime. 


SIN   AN   ACT   OF   SELF-WILL         97 

Plato  made  the  next  contribution  to  the 
science  of  sin.  He  approached  the  subject 
from  the  intellectual  side,  and  laid  it  down, 
with  great  force,  that  if  we  knew  more  we 
should  sin  less  ;  and  if  we  knew  all  we  should 
not  sin  at  all.  This  view  has  been  discredited 
by  the  reduction  of  knowledge  to  culture, 
when  it  is  at  once  contradicted  by  history,  for 
the  Renaissance,  say  in  Italy,  was  a  period  of 
monstrous  iniquity.  Read  vision  for  knowl- 
edge, and  this  view  verifies  itself,  for  if  our 
human  soul  saw  with  clear  eye  the  loathsome 
shape  of  moral  deformity  and  the  fair  propor- 
tions of  moral  beauty  it  would  not  be  possible 
to  sin.  Jesus  lends  His  sanction  to  Plato  when 
the  prodigal  comes  to  himself,  and,  his  delirium 
over,  compares  the  far  country,  in  its  shame 
and  poverty,  with  his  father's  home  where  the 
servants  have  enough  and  to  spare.  When 
Jesus  insists  '  Repent,'  He  makes  the  same 
plea,  for  repentajicciis  awaking  to  fact.  It  is  a. 
change ^f_jpind.  Jesus  also  believed  that  sin 
\vas_a  mistake.  - 

Where  Jesus  went  beyond  every  other  teach- 
er was  not  in  the  diagnosis  of  sin :  it  was  in  its 
analysis.  He  was  not  the  first  to  discover  its 
G 


98       THE   MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

symptoms  or  forms,  but  He  alone  has  gone  to  the 
bottom  of  things  and  detected  the  principle  of 
sin.  Wherein  does  sin  consist  ?  is  the  question  to 
which  one  must  come  in  the  end.  Jesus  has 
answered  it  by  tracing  down  the  varied  fibrous 
growth  of  sins  to  its  one  root,  and  so,  while 
there  are  many  authorities  on  sins,  there  is  onb 


one. on_  Sin.  As  when  one  sings,  according  to 
a  recent  beautiful  experiment,  on  a  mass  of 
confused  colours,  and  they  arrange  themselves 
into  mystical  forms  of  flower  or  shell,  so  Jesus 
breathes  on  life  and  the  phantasmagoria  of  sin 
changes  into  one  plant,  with  root,  and  branch- 
es, and  leaves,  and  fruit,  all  organised  and  con- 
sistent. Tried  by  final  tests,  and  reduced  to  its 
essential  elements,  sin  is  the  preference  of  self 
to  God,  and  the  assertion  of  the  human  will 
against  the  will  of  God.  With  Jesus,  from  first 
to  last,  sin  is  selfishness. 

It  is  the  achievement  of  modern  science  to 
discover  the  unity  of  the  physical  world.  It  is 
one  of  the  contributions  of  Jesus  to  reveal  the 
unity  of  the  spiritual  world.  Before  His  eyes 
it  was  not  a  scene  of  chance  or  confusion,  but 
an  orderly  system  standing  in  the '  will  of  God.' 
This  was  Jesus'  formula  for  the  law  of  the  soul, 


SIN   AN   ACT   OF  SELF-WILL         99 

which  is  the  principle  of  thought — for  the  law 
of  life,  which  is  the  principle  of  conduct.  If 
any  one  did  the  '  will  of  God/  he  was  in  har- 
mony with  the  spiritual  universe ;  if  he  did  his 
'  own  will '  he  was  out  of  joint.  Consciously 
and  unconsciously  each  intelligent  being  made 
a  choice  at  every  turn,  either  fulfilling  or  out- 
raging the  higher  law  of  his  nature,  either 
entering  into  or  refusing  fellowship  with  God. 
Sin  is  not  merely  a  mistake  or  a  misfit ;  it  is  a 
deliberate  mischoice.^  It  is  moral  chaos. 

Jesus'  absolute  consistency  in  His  idea  of  sin 
appears  both  in  the  standard  of  holiness  to  which 
He  ever  appealed  and  in  His  fierce  resistance 
of  certain  temptations.  '  Which  of  you  con- 
vinceth  Me  of  sin? '  demanded  Jesus  in  one  of 
His  sharpest  passages  with  the  Pharisees,  and 
it  was  a  bolder  challenge  than  we  are  apt  to 
imagine.  Had  Jesus  not  been  able  to  refer  to 
some  law  above  the  opinions  and  customs  of 
any  age,  a  law  beyond  the  tampering  of  men, — • 
and  yet  repeated  within  every  man's  soul, — He 
had  been  cast  in  that  bold  appeal.  He  had 
violated  a  local  and  national  order  at  every 
turn,  and  incurred  misunderstanding  and  cen- 
sure. Had  he  responded  to  a  higher  order 


v^    t-x  b-trC^,      tt-e-f    7>.   /  O 


ioo     THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

which  is  over  all,  and  which  a  Pharisee,  as  much 
as  Himself,  was  bound  to  obey?  If  it  could  be 
shown  that  He  was  guided  by  private  ends, 
and  that  His  life  was  an  organized  selfishness, 
then  He  must  be  condemned,  and  the  Amen  of 
every  honest  man  would  seal  the  sentence.  But 
if  His  life  was  singular  because  it  was  not  selfish 
and  did  not  conform  to  this  world,  then  He 
must  be  acquitted.  Jesus  was  jealous  on  this 
point,  and  evidently  watched  Himself  closely, 
from  His  repeated  assertions  of  obedience  to 
the  Divine  will.  '  Neither  came  I  of  Myself, 
but  He  sent  Me.'  '  I  seek  not  Mine  own 
glory.'  '  My  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that 
sent  Me.'  '  I  can  of  Myself  do  nothing ;  as  I 
hear,  I  judge  ;  and  My  judgment  is  just,  because 
I  seek  not  Mine  own  will,  but  the  will  of  the 
Father  which  hath  sent  Me.' 

Jesus'  passionate  devotion  to  the  Divine  will 
and  His  crucifixion  of  self-will  in  its  most  refined 
forms  can  be  clearly  read  in  the  fire  of  His 
temptations.  From  the  wilderness  to  the  garden 
Jesus  seems  to  have  been  assailed  by  one  trial 
expressly  suited  to  His  noble  ends  and  unstained 
soul.  He  was  not  tempted  to  do  His  own  work 
or  to  refuse  the  work  of  God;  such  temptations 


SIN  AN  ACT  OF  SELF-WILL         101 

could  never  have  once  touched  the  Servant  of 
God.  But  it  was  suggested  to  Jesus  that  He 
might  fulfil  His  calling  as  the  Messiah  with  far 
surer  and  quicker  success  if  He  did  not  die  on 
the  cross.  Be  an  imperial  Messiah,  was  in  sub- 
stance the  temptation  which  arose  before  Jesus 
at  the  beginning  of  His  public  life,  and  which 
He  described  in  such  vivid  imagery  to  His 
disciples.  He  resisted  it,  because  this  kind  of 
Messiah  was  not  the  will  of  God.  He  accepted 
the  cross  because  it  was  the  will  of  God.  There 
are  signs  that  Jesus  at  one  period  had  a  Messi- 
anic idea  which  did  not  embrace  the  Cross. 
We  detect  the  inward  strain  ere  Jesus'  victory 
over  self-will  was  complete.  He  set  His  face 
'  stedfastly  '  to  go  to  Jerusalem.  He  resented 
the  suggestion  of  St.  Peter  with  a  sudden  fierce- 
ness. He  was  troubled  in  prospect  of  the  cross. 
He  was  oppressed  for  a  time  in  the  upper  room. 
Beneath  the  olive  trees  of  the  garden  He  had 
His  last  encounter  with  evil,  and  only  when 
He  said,  '  Nevertheless,  not  My  will,  but  Thine 
be  done '  was  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus  estab- 
lished. 

Jesus  cast  His  whole  doctrine  of  sin  into  the 
Drama  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  and  commands  our 


102      THE    MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

adherence  by  its  absolute  fidelity  to  life.  The 
parable  moves  between  the  two  poles  of  ideal 
and  real  human  life — home,  where  the  sons  of 
God  live  in  moral  harmony  with  their  Father, 
which  is  liberty, — and  exile,  where  they  live  in 
riotous  disobedience,  which  is  licence.  He  fixes 
on  His  representative  sinner,  and  traces  his 
career  with  great  care  and  various  subtle 
touches.  His  father  does  not  compel  him  to 
stay  at  home  : — he  has  free  will.  The  son 
claims  his  portion  : — he  has  individuality.  He 
flings  himself  out  of  his  father's  house : — he 
makes  a  mischoice.  He  plays  the  fool  in  the 
far  country  : — this  is  the  fulfilling  of  his  bent. 
He  is  sent  out  to  feed  swine : — this  is  the 
punishment  of  sin.  He  awakes  to  a  bitter 
contrast : — this  is  repentance.  He  returns  to 
obedience  : — this  is  salvation.  Salvation  is  the 
restoration  of  spiritual  order — the  close  of  a 
bitter  experience.  It  is  the  return  of  the  race 
from  its  '  Wander  Year.' 

Jesus  rooted  all  sin  in  selfishness,  but  He 
distinguished  two  classes  of  sinners  and  their 
punishment.  There  was  the  Pharisee,  who  re- 
sisted God  because  he  was  wilfully  blind  and 
filled  with  pride.  There  was  the  Publican,  who 


SIN   AN   ACT   OF   SELF-WILL        103 

forsook  God  because  he  was  led  astray  by 
wandering  desires  and  evil  habits.  Sin,  in  each 
case,  wrought  its  own  punishment.  For  the 
Pharisee  it  was  paralysis,  so  that  he  could  not 
enter  the  kingdom ;  for  the  Publican  it  was 
suffering,  so  that  he  must  cut  off  the  right  arm 
and  pluck  out  the  right  eye  to  obtain  the  king- 
dom. Heaven,  according  to  Jesus,  was  to  be 
with  God  in  our  Father's  house ;  hell  was  to 
be  away  from  God,  in  the  far  country.  Each 
man  carried  his  heaven  in  his  heart — '  the  king- 
dom is  within  you  ' ;  or  his  hell  in  a  gnawing 
remorse  and  heat  of  lust,  'where  their  worm 
dieth  not,  and  the  fire  is  not  quenched.' 

It  is  reasonable  to  expect  that  Jesus'  idea  of 
salvation  will  correspond  with  His  idea  of  sin, 
as  lock  and  key,  or  disease  and  medicine,  and 
one  is  not  disappointed.  According  to  Jesus, 
the  selfish  man  was  lost ;  the  unselfish  was 
saved,  and  so  He  was  ever  impressing  on  His 
disciples  that  they  must  not  strive,  but  serve. 
He  Himself  had  come  to  serve,  and  He  declared 
that  His  sacrifice  of  Himself  would  be  the  re- 
demption of  the  world.  This  is  Jesus'  explana- 
tion of  the  virtue  of  His  death.  It  was  an  act 
of  utter  devotion  to  the  will  of  God,  and  a 


io4      THE   MIND   OF  THE   MASTER 

power  of  emancipation  in  the  hearts  of  His 
disciples.  As  they  entered  into  His  Spirit  they 
would  be  loosened  from  bondage  and  escape 
into  liberty.  They  would  be  no  longer  the 
slaves  of  sin,  for  the  Son  had  made  them  free. 
Jesus  proposed  to  ransom  the  race,  not  by  pay- 
ing a  price  to  the  devil  or  to  God,  but  by 
loosening  the  grip  of  sin  on  the  heart  and  rein- 
forcing the  will.  The  service  of  His  life  and  the 
sacrifice  of  His  death  would  infuse  a  new  spirit 
into  humanity,  and  be  its  regeneration.  '  The 

I  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto, 
but  to  minister,  and  to  give  His  life  a  ransom 

|  for  many.'  Within  this  one  pregnant  sentence 
Jesus  states  His  doctrine  of  sin  and  salvation, 
and  it  offers  three  pledges  of  reality.  It  reduces 
the  different  forms  of  sin  to  a  unity  by  tracing 
them  all  to  self-will.  It  shows  the  ethical  con- 
nection between  the  sin  of  man  and  the  death 
of  Jesus.  And  it  can  be  verified  in  the  ex- 
perience of  the  saint,  which  is  the  story  of  a 
long  struggle  before  his  will  becomes  '  the  Will 
of  God/ 


THE   CULTURE    OF   THE  CROSS 


VI 

THE  CULTURE  OF  THE  CROSS 

it  has  been  said,  with  a  superb  negligence  of 
Judaism,  that  Jesus  discovered  the  individual ; 
it  would  be  nearer  the  truth  to  affirm  that  Jesus 
cultivated  the  individual.  Hebrew  religion  had 
endowed  each  man  with  the  right  to  say  "  I,"  by 
inspiring  every  man  with  the  faith  to  say  God, 
and  Jesus  raised  individuality  to  its  highest 
power  by  a  regulated  process  of  sanctification. 
Nothing  is  more  characteristic  of  Jesus'  method 
than  His  indifference  to  the  many — His  devo- 
tion to  the  single  soul.  His  attitude  to  the 
public,  and  His  attitude  to  a  private  person 
were  a  contrast  and  a  contradiction.  If  His  work 
was  likely  to  cause  a  sensation,  Jesus  charged 
His  disciples  to  let  no  man  know  it :  if  the 
people  got  wind  of  Him,  He  fled  to  solitary 
places :  if  they  found  Him,  as  soon  as  might  be, 
He  escaped.  But  He  used  to  take  young  men 


io8     THE    MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

home  with  Him,  who  wished  to  ask  questions : 
He  would  spend  all  night  with  a  perplexed 
scholar :  He  gave  an  afternoon  to  a  Samaritan 
woman.  He  denied  Himself  to  the  multitude  : 
He  lay  in  wait  for  the  individual.  This  was  not 
because  He  undervalued  a  thousand,  it  was 
because  He(cqul^not  work  on  the  thousand 
scale :  it  was  not  because  He  over-valued  the 
individual,  it  was  because  His  method  was 
arranged  for  the  scale  of  one.  Jesus  never  suc- 
ceeded in  public  save  once,  when  He  was  cru- 
cified  :  He  never  failed^rrprivate  save  once,  with 
PontiusJPilate.  His  method  was  not  sensation  : 
it  was  influence.  He  did  not  rely  on  impulses : 
He  believed  in  discipline.  He  never  numbered 
converts  because  He  knew  what  was  in  man : 
He  sifted  them  as  one  winnoweth  the  wheat 
from  the  chaff.  Spiritual  statistics  are  unknown 
in  the  Gospels :  they  came  in  with  St.  Peter  in 
the  pardonable  intoxication  of  success :  they 
have  since  grown  to  be  a  mania.  As  the  Church 
coarsens  she  estimates  salvation  by  quantity, 
how  many  souls  are  saved  :  Jesus  was  concerned 
with  quality,  after  what  fashion  they  were  saved. 
His  mission  was  to  bring  Humanity  to  per- 
fection. 


THE   CULTURE   OF   THE    CROSS    109 

Human  nature  has  been  a  slow  evolution,  and 
Jesus  restricted  Himself  to  the  highest  reaches. 
He  did  not  say  one  word  on  the  health  of  the 
body,  although  He  is  the  only  man  in  history 
that  never  knew  sickness.  Health  is  a  matter  of 
physiology :  it  is  assumed  in  the  ideal  of  Jesus. 
The  Kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and  drink :  it 
is  Righteousness  and  Peace  and  Joy.  He  pro- 
posed no  rules  for  the  training  of  the  mind  and 
did  not  condescend  to  write  a  book,  although 
every  one  recognises  Jesus  as  the  Prophet  of 
our  Race.  Mental  culture  is  the  province  of 
Literature,  and  Literature  is  lower  than  the 
highest,  for  Jesus  once  cried  in  a  rapture,  '  I 
thank  Thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  Heaven  and 
earth,  because  Thou  hast  hid  these  things  from 
the  wise  and  prudent  and  hast  revealed  them 
unto  babes.'  The  mind  is  greater  than  the 
body ;  but  there  is  one  place  more  sacred  still 
where  God  is  enshrined,  and  the  affections,  like 
cherubim,  bend  over  the  Will.  The  Soul  is  the 
holiest  of  all,  whose  curtains  no  master  dared  to 
raise  till  Jesus  entered  as  the  High  Priest  of 
Humanity,  and  it  is  in  this  secret  place  Jesus 
works.  There  are  three  steps  in  the  Santa 
Scala  which  the  Race  is  slowly  and  painfully 


no      THE    MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

ascending ;  barbarism  where  men  cultivate  the 
body,  civilisation  where  they  cultivate  the  in- 
tellect, holiness  where  they  cultivate  the  soul. 
There  is  for  the  whole  Race,  for  each  nation, 
for  every  individual,  the  age  of  Homer,  the  age 
of  Socrates,  the  age  of  Jesus.  Beyond  the  age 
of  Jesus  nothing  can  be  desired  or  imagined,  for 
it  runs  on  those  lofty  tablelands  where  the  soul 
lives  with  God. 

Jesus  divested  Himself  of  every  other  interest, 
and  for  three  years  gave  Himself  night  and  day 
to  the  culture  of  the  human  soul  as  a  naturalist 
to  the  cultivation  of  a  rare  plant,  or  a  scientist  to 
the  conquest  of  the  electric  force.  He  selected 
twelve  men  from  the  multitude  that  offered 
themselves,  whom  he  considered  malleable  and 
receptive  for  His  discipline.  They  became  His 
disciples  on  whom  He  lavished  labour  He  could 
not  afford  to  the  world,  and  He  became  their 
Master  to  whom  they  had  committed  them- 
selves for  treatment.  Jesus  separated  these 
men  from  the  world  and  kept  them  under 
observation  night  and  day:  He  studied  their 
failings  and  idiosyncrasies:  He  applied  His 
method  in  every  kind  of  circumstance  and  with 
calculated  degrees  of  intensity.  With  a  mini- 


THE  CULTURE  OF  THE  CROSS  in 

mum  of  failure,  one  out  of  twelve :  with  a 
maximum  of  success,  eleven  men  of  such 
spiritual  force  that  they  gave  another  face  to 
the  world  and  lifted  the  Race  to  its  highest 
level.  The  Gospels  contain  the  careful  account 
of  this  delicate  experiment  in  religious  science, 
and  Jesus'  exposition  of  the  principle  of  saint- 
hood. Christianity  for  nineteen  centuries  has 
been  the  record  of  its  application. 

Spiritual  culture  demands  an  Ideal  as  well  as 
a  Discipline,  and  Jesus  availed  Himself  of  the 
Ideal  of  the  Prophets.  Their  chief  discovery 
was  the  character  of  God — when  the  Hebrew 
conscience,  the  keenest  religious  instrument  in 
the  ancient  world,  lifted  the  veil  from  the 
Eternal,  and  conceived  Jehovah  as  the  imper- 
sonation of  Righteousness.  Their  chief  service 
was  the  insistence  on  the  duty  of  Righteous- 
ness— who  placed  in  parallel  columns  the 
characters  of  God  and  man,  and  dared  to  believe 
that  every  man  ought  to  be  the  replica  of  God. 
Their  text  was  the  Holy  One, — their  endless 
and  unanswerable  sermon,  Holiness.  Jesus 
adopted  the  obligation  of  Holiness,  but  changed 
it  into  a  Gospel  by  revealing  the  latent  re- 
lationship between  man  and  God.  Had  one 


ii2      THE    MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

asked  the  Hebrew  Prophet,  Why  ought  I  to  be 
holy?  he  had  replied  at  his  best,  because  Holi- 
ness is  the  law  of  your  being.  Jesus  accepted 
the  law,  but  added,  because  a  son  ought  to  be 
like  his  Father.  The  Law  without  became  an 
instinct  within.  Holiness  is  conformity  to  type, 
and  the  one  standard  of  perfection  is  God  Him- 
self. Set  the  soul  at  liberty,  and  its  history 
will  be  a  perpetual  approximation  to  God.  '  Be 
ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy,'  said  the  Old  Testament. 
'  Be  ye  perfect,  even  as  your  Father  which  is  in 
Heaven  is  perfect,'  said  Jesus. 

With  a  soul  that  is  imperfect,  discipline 
would  simply  be  development.  With  a  soul 
that  is  sinful,  discipline  must  begin  with  deliver- 
ance. Jesus,  as  the  Physician  of  the  soul,  had 
not  merely  to  do  with  growth  :  He  had  to  deal 
with  deformity  ;  and  Jesus,  who  alone  has 
analysed  sin,  has  alone  prescribed  its  cure. 
Before  Jesus,  people  tried  to  put  away  sin  by 
the  sacrifice  of  bulls  and  goats,  and  so  exposed 
themselves  to  the  merciless  satire  of  the  Proph- 
ets ;  since  Jesus,  people  have  imagined  that 
they  could  be  loosed  from  their  sins  by  the 
dramatic  spectacle  of  Jesus'  death,  and  so  have 
made  the  crucifixion  of  none  effect.  If  sin  be 


THE   CULTURE    OF   THE   CROSS   113 

a  principle  in  a  man's  life,  then  it  is  evident 
that  it  cannot  be  affected  by  the  most  pathetic 
act  in  history  exhibited  from  without ;  it  must 
be  met  by  an  opposite  principle  working  from 
within.  If  sin  be  selfishness,  as  Jesus  taught, 
then  it  can  only  be  overcome  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  spirit  of  self-renunciation.  Jesus  did 
not  denounce  sin  :  negative  religion  is  always 
impotent.  He  replaced  sin  by  virtue,  which  is 
a  silent  revolution.  As  the  light  enters,  the 
darkness  departs,  and  as  soon  as  one  renounced 
himself,  he  had  ceased  from  sin. 

Jesus  placed  His  disciples  under  an  elaborate 
and  calculated  regimen,  which  was  intended  at 
every  point  to  check  the  fever  of  self-will,  and 
reduce  the  swollen  proportions  of  our  lower 
self.  They  were  to  repress  the  petty  ambitions 
of  society.  '  When  thou  art  bidden  of  any  man 
to  a  wedding,  sit  not  down  in  the  highest  room 
.  .  .  but  when  thou  art  bidden,  go  and  sit 
down  in  the  lowest  room.'  They  were  to 
mortify  the  self-importance  and  vain  dignity 
that  will  not  render  commonplace  kindness.  '  If 
I  then,  your  Lord  and  Master,  have  washed 
your  feet,  ye  also  ought  to  wash  one  another's 
feet.'  They  were  not  to  wrangle  about  place, 
H 


ii4      THE   MIND  OF   THE   MASTER 

or  seek  after  great  things.  '  Jesus  took  a  child, 
and  set  him  by  Him,  and  said  unto  them,  .  .  . 
he  that  is  least  among  you  all,  the  same  shall 
be  great.'  They  were  not  to  insist  on  rights 
and  resist  injustice  fiercely.  '  Whosoever  shall 
smite  thee  on  thy  right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the 
other  also.  And  if  any  man  will  sue  thee  at  the 
law,  and  take  away  thy  coat,  let  him  have  thy 
cloke  also.'  Jesus  once  cast  into  keen  contrast 
the  life  of  the  world,  which  one  was  inclined  to 
follow,  and  the  life  of  the  Kingdom  His  dis- 
ciples must  achieve.  '  Ye  know  that  they 
which  are  accounted  to  rule  over  the  Gentiles 
exercise  lordship  over  them  ;  and  their  great 
ones  exercise  authority  upon  them  ' — that  is 
the  self-life  where  men  push  and  rule.  '  But  so 
shall  it  not  be  among  you  :  but  whosoever  shall 
be  great  among  you,  shall  be  your  minister ' — 
this  is  the  selfless  life  where  men  submit  and 
serve. 

Jesus'  regimen  had  two  degrees.  The  first 
was  self-denial ;  the  second  was  suffering,  which 
is  self-denial  raised  to  its  full  strength.  If  a 
young  man  really  desired  to  possess  '  ageless 
life,'  he  must  sell  all  he  had  and  give  to  the 
poor.  If  a  publican  desired  the  Kingdom  of 


THE   CULTURE   OF  THE  CROSS    115 

God,  he  must  leave  all  and  follow  Jesus.  Men 
might  have  to  abandon  everything  they  pos- 
sessed and  every  person  they  loved,  for  Jesus' 
sake  and  the  Gospel's.  The  very  instincts  of 
nature  must  be  held  in  check,  and  at  times  laid 
on  the  altar.  '  He  that  loveth  father  and  mother 
more  than  Me  is  not  worthy  of  Me,  and  he  that 
loveth  son  or  daughter  more  than  Me  is  not 
worthy  of  Me.'  This  was  not  the  senseless 
asceticism  that  supposed  life  could  be  bought 
with  money,  and  it  was  still  less  the  jealousy  of 
a  master  that  grudged  any  affection  given  to 
another.  It  was  the  illustration  of  that  Selfless- 
ness which  is  the  Law  of  Holiness,  the  enforce- 
ment of  that  death  which  is  the  gate  of  Life. 
It  was  the  exposition  of  Jesus'  famous  paradox, 
'  He  that  findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he 
that  loseth  his  life  for  My  sake  shall  find  it.' 
Behold  His  discipline  of  perfection,  upon  which 
in  a  moment  of  fine  inspiration  Jesus  conferred 
the  name  of  the  Cross.  The  Cross  is  the  sym- 
bol of  self-renunciation  and  self-sacrifice,  and  is 
Jesus'  method  of  salvation.  If  any  one  desires 
to  be  saved  by  Jesus,  this  is  how  he  is  going  to 
be  saved.  It  is  the  '  Secret  of  Jesus ' :  the  way 
which  He  has  Himself  trod,  and  by  which  He 


n6      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

leads  His  disciples  unto  God.  '  If  any  man  will 
come  after  Me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take 
up  his  cross  and  follow  Me.' 

The  Cross  was  an  open  secret  to  the  first 
disciples,  and  they  climbed  the  steep  ascent  to 
Heaven  by  the  '  Royal  Way  of  the  Holy 
Cross,'  but  its  simplicity  has  been  often  veiled 
in  later  days.  Perhaps  the  simplicity  of  the 
symbol  has  cast  a  glamour  over  the  modern 
mind  and  blinded  us  to  its  strenuous  meaning. 
Art,  for  instance,  with  an  unerring  instinct  of 
moral  beauty,  has  seized  the  Cross  and  ideal- 
ised it.  It  is  wrought  in  gold  and  hung  from 
the  neck  of  light-hearted  beauty ;  it  is  stamped 
on  the  costly  binding  of  Bibles  that  go  to 
church  in  carriages  ;  it  stands  out  in  bold  relief 
on  churches  that  are  filled  with  easy-going  peo- 

!  pie.  Painters  have  given  themselves  to  cruci- 
fixions, and  their  striking  works  are  criticised 
by  persons  who  praise  the  thorns  in  the  crown, 
but  are  not  quite  pleased  with  the  expression 
on  Jesus'  face,  and  then  return  to  their  pleas- 

j  ures.  Composers  have  cast  the  bitter  Passion 
of  Jesus  into  stately  oratorios,  and  fashionable 
audiences  are  affected  unto  tears.  Jesus'  Cross 
has  been  taken  out  of  His  hands  and  smothered 


THE   CULTURE   OF   THE   CROSS   117 

in  flowers  ;  it  has  become  what  He  would  have 
hated,  a  source  of  graceful  ideas  and  agreeable 
emotions.  When  Jesus  presented  the  Cross 
for  the  salvation  of  His  disciples,  He  was  cer- 
tainly not  thinking  of  a  sentiment,  which  can 
disturb  no  man's  life,  nor  redeem  any  man's 
soul,  but  of  the  unsightly  beam  which  must  be 
set  up  in  the  midst  of  a  man's  pleasures,  and 
the  jagged  nails  that  must  pierce  his  soul. 

Theological  science  has  also  shown  an  unfor- 
tunate tendency  to  monopolise  the  Cross,  till 
the  symbol  of  salvation  has  been  lifted  out  of 
the  ethical  setting  of  the  Gospels  and  planted 
in  an  environment  of  doctrine.  The  Cross  has 
been  too  laboriously  traced  back  to  decrees  and 
inserted  into  covenants :  it  has  been  too  ex- 
clusively stated  in  terms  of  Justification  and 
Propitiation.  This  is  a  misappropriation  of  the 
Cross :  it  is  a  violation  of  its  purpose.  None 
can  belittle  the  function  of  the  Queen  of  Sci- 
ences or  deny  her  right  to  theorise  regarding 
the  Divine  Purposes  and  the  Eternal  Right- 
eousness, but  it  has  been  a  disaster  to  involve 
the  Cross  in  these  profound  speculations. 
When  Theology  has  said  her  last  word  on  the 
Cross  it  is  a  mystery  to  the  common  people  ; 


n8      THE   MIND  OF   THE   MASTER 

when  Jesus  says  His  first  word  it  is  a  plain 
path.  Jesus  did  not  describe  His  Cross  as  a 
satisfaction  to  God,  else  He  had  hardly  asked 
His  disciples  to  share  it ;  He  always  spoke  of  it 
as  a  Regeneration  of  man,  and  therefore  Jesus 
declares  that  if  any  man  be  His  disciple  he 
must  carry  it  daily.  Theology  has  one  terri- 
tory, which  is  theory ;  Religion  has  another, 
which  is  life,  and  the  Cross  belongs  to  Re- 
ligion. The  Gospels  do  not  represent  the 
Cross  as  a  judicial  transaction  between  Jesus 
and  God,  on  which  He  throws  not  the  slightest 
light,  but  as  a  new  force  which  Jesus  has  in- 
troduced into  life,  and  which  He  prophesies 
will  be  its  redemption.  The  Cross  may  be 
made  into  a  doctrine  ;  it  was  prepared  by  Jesus 
as  a  discipline. 

There  are  two  methods  of  healing  for  the 
body,  and  they  are  not  on  the  same  moral 
level.  One  physician  prescribes  a  medicine 
whose  ingredients  are  unknown,  and  whose 
operation  is  instantaneous,  which  is  certain  for 
all  and  the  same  for  all.  The  patient  swallows 
it  and  is  cured  without  understanding  and  with- 
out co-operation.  This  is  cure  by  magic,  and 
is  very  suspicious.  Another  physician  makes 


THE   CULTURE   OF   THE   CROSS    119 

hfs  diagnosis  and  estimates  the  symptoms,  se- 
lects his  remedy  in  correspondence  with  the 
disease,  and  takes  his  patient  into  his  confi- 
dence. He  enlists  one's  intelligence,  saying, 
You  must  have  this  medicine,  because  you 
have  that  disease.  There  is  no  secrecy,  for 
there  is  nothing  to  hide  :  there  is  no  boasting, 
for  so  much  depends  on  the  patient.  This  is 
cure  by  science.  There  are  two  kinds  of  Relig- 
ion for  the  relief  of  man.  One  offers  a  formu- 
la to  be  accepted  and  swallowed.  It  may  be 
in  the  form  of  a  sacrament,  or  of  a  text,  or  of  a 
view.  But  as  soon  as  the  person  receives  it 
without  doubt,  he  is  saved.  If  he  wishes  to 
understand  the  How  of  the  operation,  he  is  as- 
sured that  it  is  an  incomprehensible  mystery. 
Here  there  is  no  connection  with  reason,  no 
action  of  the  Will.  It  is  salvation  by  magic. 
The  other  religion  makes  a  careful  analysis  of 
sin,  and  proposes  a  course  of  treatment  which  a 
man  can  understand  and  apply.  It  is  an  anti- 
dote to  the  poison  acting  directly  and  gradu- 
ally, in  perfect  harmony  with  the  laws  of  hu- 
man nature.  Is  one  willing  to  make  a  trial  ? 
then  he  can  enter  into  its  meaning  and  test  its 
success.  This  is  salvation  by  science,  and  it  is 


120      THE   MIND   OF   THE  MASTER 

not  the  least  of  the  excellences  in  Jesus'  method 
that  it  is  grounded  on  reason  and  can  be  tried 
by  experience.  The  action  of  the  Cross  on  sin 
is  as  simple  in  its  higher  sphere  as  the  reduction 
of  fever  by  antipyrine  or  of  inflammation  by  a 
counter-irritant  in  physical  disease. 

Jesus  does  not  appeal  to  authority  for  the 
sanction  of  His  method — always  a  hazardous 
resort.  He  rests  on  facts  which  lie  to  every 
one's  hands.  Self-examination  is  the  vindica- 
tion of  the  Cross.  Is  not  every  man  con- 
scious of  a  strange  duality,  so  that  he  seems 
two  men  ?  There  is  the  self  who  is  proud, 
envious,  jealous — a  lower  self.  There  is  the 
self  which  is  modest,  generous,  ungrudging — a 
higher  self.  Just  as  the  lower  self  is  repressed 
the  higher  lives  ;  just  as  the  lower  is  pampered 
the  higher  dies.  We  are  conscious  of  this  con- 
flict and  desire  that  the  evil  self  be  crushed, 
mortified,  killed  ;  that  the  better  self  be  liberat- 
ed, fed,  developed.  It  goes  without  saying  that 
the  victory  of  the  evil  self  would  be  destruction, 
that  the  victory  of  the  better  self  would  be 
salvation.  It  is  at  this  point  Jesus  comes  in 
with  His  principle  of  self-renunciation.  If  any 
man  will  place  himself  under  My  direction,  says 


THE  CULTURE  OF  THE  CROSS    121 

Jesus,  and  take  the  rule  from  Me,  '  let  him 
deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  and  follow 
Me.'  As  Peter  would  thrice  deny  his  Lord,  so 
must  Jesus'  disciple  at  all  times  deny  his  old 
self  and  refuse  to  know  it.  The  habit  of  self- 
renunciation  is  the  crucifixion  of  sin. 

It  were,  however,  a  depreciation  of  the  Cross 
to  limit  it  to  a  remedy  for  sin :  it  is  also,  in 
Jesus'  mind,  a  discipline  of  perfection  for  the 
soul.  It  is  more  than  a  deliverance,  it  is  an 
entrance  into  the  life  of  God.  The  Cross  is  not 
only  the  symbol  for  the  life  of  man,  it  is  equal- 
ly the  symbol  for  the  life  of  God,  and  it  may 
indeed  be  said  that  the  Cross  is  in  the  heart  of 
God.  Jesus  has  taught  us  that  the  equivalent 
of  life  is  sacrifice,  and  it  is  with  God  that  sacri- 
fice begins.  '  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He 
gave  His  only  begotten  Son,'  said  Jesus  with 
profound  significance,  for  His  coming  was  the 
revelation  of  the  Divine  nature.  The  Incarna- 
tion was  an  act  of  sacrifice,  so  patent  and  so 
brilliant  that  it  has  arrested  every  mind.  It 
was  sacrifice  unto  the  lowest  and  therefore  life 
in  the  highest,  an  outburst  and  climax  of  Life. 
But  Creation  is  also  Sacrifice,  since  it  is  God 
giving  Himself ;  and  Providence  is  Sacrifice, 


122      THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

since  it  is  God  revealing  Himself.  Grace  is 
Sacrifice,  since  it  is  God  girding  Himself  and 
serving.  With  God,  as  Jesus  declares  Him, 
Life  is  an  eternal  procession  of  gifts,  a  costly 
outpouring  of  Himself,  an  unwearied  suffering 
of  Love.  To  live  is  to  love,  to  love  is  to  suffer, 
and  to  suffer  is  to  rejoice  with  a  joy  that  fills 
the  heart  of  God  from  age  to  age.  The  mystery 
of  Life,  Divine  and  human,  possibly  the  mystery 
of  the  Holy  Trinity,  is  contained  in  these  words 
of  Jesus  :  '  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  except 
a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  it  abideth 
alone,  but  if  it  die  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit. 
He  that  loveth  his  life  shall  lose  it  ;  and  he  that 
hateth  his  life  in  this  world  shall  keep  it  unto 
life  eternal.'  The  development  of  the  soul  is 
along  the  way  of  the  Cross  to  the  heights  of 
life.  As  one  of  the  mystics  has  it,  '  A  life  of 
carelessness  is  to  nature  and  the  self  and  the 
Me  the  sweetest  and  pleasantest,  but  it  is  not 
the  best,  and  to  some  men  may  become  the 
worst.  Though  Christ's  life  be  the  most  bitter 
of  all,  yet  it  is  to  be  preferred  above  all.'  '  What,' 
asks  Herder,  '  has  close  fellowship  with  God 
ever  proved  to  man  but  a  costly,  self-sacrificing 
service?'  What  else  could  it  be  if  Love  is 


THE  CULTURE  OF  THE  CROSS    123 

the   law  of   spiritual    Life    throughout  the  uni- 
verse ? 

Progress  by  suffering  is  one  of  Jesus'  most 
characteristic  ideas,  and,  like  every  other,  is 
embodied  in  the  economy  of  human  nature  and 
confirmed  by  the  sweep  of  human  history. 
The  Cross  marks  every  departure  :  the  Cross  is 
the  condition  of  every  achievement.  Moderr 
Europe  has  emerged  from  the  Middle  Ages, 
Christianity  from  Judaism,  Judaism  from  Egypt, 
Egypt  from  barbarism,  with  throes  of  agony. 
Humanity  has  fought  its  way  upwards  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet,  torn  and  bleeding,  yet 
hopeful  and  triumphant.  As  each  nation 
suffers,  it  prospers ;  as  it  ceases  to  suffer,  it 
decays.  Our  England  was  begotten  in  the  sore 
travail  of  Elizabeth's  day.  The  American 
nation  sprang  from  the  sons  of  martyrs. 
United  Germany  was  baptised  in  blood.  The 
pioneers  of  science  have  lived  hardly.  The 
most  original  philosopher  of  modern  times 
ground  glasses  for  a  living,  and  was  the  victim 
of  incurable  disease.  The  master  poem  of 
English  speech  was  written  by  a  blind  and  for- 
saken Puritan.  The  New  World  was  found  in 
spite  of  a  hostile  court  and  treacherous  friends. 


124     THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

Some  have  imagined  an  earthly  paradise  for 
the  race,  where  it  would  have  remained  igno- 
rant of  good  and  evil,  without  exertion,  without 
hardship.  Jesus  saw  with  clearer  eyes.  He 
made  no  moan  over  a  lost  Eden,  He  knew 
that  it  is  a  steep  road  that  leads  to  the  stars. 
Jesus  believed  that  the  price  of  all  real  life  is 
suffering,  and  that  a  man  must  sell  all  that  he 
has  to  buy  the  pearl  of  great  price.  Twice  at 
least  He  lifted  this  experience  into  a  law.  '  En- 
ter ye  in  at  the  strait  gate  .  .  .  because 
strait  is  the  gate  and  narrow  is  the  way  which 
leadeth  unto  life.'  And  again,  after  His  glow- 
ing eulogy  on  John  in  His  intensity :  '  From 
the  days  of  John  the  Baptist  until  now  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  suffereth  violence,  and  the 
violent  take  it  by  force.' 

Jesus  Himself  remains  for  ever  the  convinc- 
ing illustration  of  this  severe  culture.  His 
rejection  by  a  wicked  generation  and  the  out- 
rages heaped  upon  Him  seemed  an  unredeemed 
calamity  to  the  disciples.  His  undeserved  and 
accumulated  trials  were  at  times  a  burden 
almost  too  great  for  Jesus'  own  soul.  But  He 
entered  into  their  meaning  before  the  cad, 
because  they  were  bringing  His  Humanity  to 


THE  CULTURE  OF   THE   CROSS  125 

the  fulness  of  perfection.  Without  His  Cross 
Jesus  had  been  poorer  in  the  world  this  day 
and  might  have  been  unloved.  It  was  suffer- 
ing that  wrought  in  Him  that  beauty  of  holi- 
ness, sweetness  of  patience,  wealth  of  sympathy, 
and  grace  of  compassion,  which  constitute  His 
divine  attraction,  and  are  seating  Him  on  His 
throne.  Once  when  the  cloud  fell  on  Him,  He 
cried,  '  Father,  save  me  from  this  hour '  ;  when 
the  cloud  lifted,  Jesus  saw  of  the  travail  of  His 
soul — '  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will 
draw  all  men  unto  Me.'  In  the  upper  room 
Jesus  was  cast  down  for  an  instant  ;  then 
Iscariot  went  out  to  arrange  for  the  arrest,  and 
Jesus  revived  at  the  sight  of  the  Cross :  '  Now 
is  the  Son  of  Man  glorified.'  Two  disciples  are 
speaking  of  the  great  tragedy  as  they  walk  to 
Emmaus,  when  the  risen  Lord  joins  them  and 
reads  the  riddle  of  His  Life.  It  was  not  a  dis- 
aster :  it  was  a  design.  '  Ought  not  Christ  to 
have  suffered  these  things,  and  to  enter  into 
His  glory?  '  The  Perfection  of  Jesus  was  the 
fruit  of  the  Cross. 

'  Thou  must  go  without,  go  without — that  is 
the  everlasting  song  which  every  hour  all  our 
life  through  hoarsely  sings  to  us ' — is  the  pro- 


126      THE   MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

found  utterance  of  a  great  teacher ;  but  Jesus  has 
said  it  better  in  His  commandment  of  self-abne- 
gation and  His  offer  of  the  Cross.  It  has  been 
the  custom  to  make  a  contrast  between  John 
the  Baptist  with  his  stern  regime  and  Jesus  with 
His  gentle  Gospel,  but  the  difference  was  in 
spirit,  not  in  method.  If  the  religion  of  John 
was  strenuous,  so  was  the  religion  of  Jesus.  It  is 
a  necessity  of  the  spiritual  world  Jesus  Himself 
could  not  break.  Hardness  is  of  the  essence  of 
Religion,  like  the  iron  band  within  the  golden 
crown.  Jesus  was  willing  to  undertake  the 
culture  of  every  man's  soul,  but  He  knew  no 
other  way  than  the  Cross.  If  His  disciples 
wished  to  sit  on  His  throne,  they  must  drink 
His  cup  and  be  baptised  with  His  baptism. 
Jesus  did  not  walk  one  way  Himself  and  pro- 
pose another  for  the  disciples,  but  invited  them 
to  His  experience  if  they  desired  His  attain- 
ment. His  method  was  not  the  materialistic 
cross  of  Munkkcsy,  it  was  the  mystical  cross  of 
Perugino.  Jesus  nowhere  commanded  that  one 
cling  to  His  Cross,  He  everywhere  commanded 
that  one  carry  His  Cross,  and  out  of  this  daily 
crucifixion  has  been  born  the  most  beautiful 


THE  CULTURE  OF  THE  CROSS    127 

sainthood  from  St.  Paul  to  St.  Francis,  from 
A  Kempis  to  George  Herbert.  For  '  there  is 
no  salvation  of  the  soul  nor  hope  of  everlasting 
life  but  in  the  Cross.' 


FAITH  THE   SIXTH    SENSE 


VII 

FAITH   THE   SIXTH    SENSE 

Religion  is  recognised  not  only  as  a  univer- 
sal factor  in  human  history,  but  also  as  an  es- 
sential element  of  human  nature,  so  that  if  any 
person  with  a  sense  of  responsibility  proposes 
to  remove  the  supernatural  Religion  of  the 
past,  he  feels  himself  bound  to  replace  it  with  a 
natural  Religion  for  the  future.  It  is  one  thing 
however  to  do  homage  to  a  ruler,  it  is  another 
to  identify  his  throne,  and,  apart  from  Jesus,  it 
were  hardly  possible  to  determine  the  seat  of 
Religion.  Some  have  argued  that  Religion  is 
the  fulfilment  of  duty  ;  this  is  to  settle  Religion 
in  the  conscience  and  to  reduce  it  to  morality. 
Some  have  insisted  that  Religion  is  the  accept- 
ance of  revealed  truth  ;  this  is  to  settle  Religion 
in  the  reason,  and  to  resolve  Religion  into 
knowledge.  Some  have  pleaded  that  Religion 
is  a  state  of  feeling  ;  this  is  to  settle  Religion  in 


i32      THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

the  heart  and  to  dissolve  it  into  emotion.  The 
philosopher,  the  theologian,  the  mystic  can  each 
make  out  a  good  case,  for  each  has  without 
doubt  represented  a  side  of  Religion.  None  of 
the  three  can  exclude  the  other  two ;  all  three 
cannot  include  Religion.  Piety,  knowledge, 
emotion  are  only  prolegomena  to  Religion — 
its  favourite  forms  and  customs.  Localise  Re- 
ligion in  any  of  those  spheres,  and  you  have  a 
provincial  notion  ;  what  we  want  is  an  imperial 
idea  of  our  greatest  experience.  As  usual,  we 
owe  it  to  Jesus. 

Jesus  recognised  the  variety  of  the  religious 
spirit  and  gave  His  direct  sanction  to  its  choice 
fruits.  Religion  is  obedience  to  the  highest 
law :  '  Ye  are  My  friends  if  ye  do  whatsoever  I 
command  you.'  Religion  is  knowledge  :  '  that 
they  might  know  Thee,  the  only  true  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent.'  Religion 
is  a  sublime  emotion  :  '  She  hath  washed  My 
feet  with  tears,  and  wiped  them  with  the  hairs 
of  her  head.'  But  religion  with  Jesus  is  not 
merely  an  influence  diffused  through  our  spirit- 
ual nature  like  heat  through  iron  ;  it  has  a  sep- 
arate existence.  Religion  is  not  a  nomad  that 
has  to  receive  hospitality  in  some  foreign  de- 


FAITH   THE   SIXTH   SENSE          133 

partment  of  the  soul  ;  it  has  its  own  home  and 
habitation.  It  is  a  faculty  of  our  constitution 
as  much  as  Conscience  or  Reason,  with  its  own 
sphere  of  operations  and  peculiar  function. 
When  some  exuberant  writer  refers  to  Religion 
as  a  fungoid  growth  or  a  decaying  superstition, 
one  is  amazed  at  his  belated  state  of  mind. 
Science  discovers  that  Religion  has  shaped  the 
past  of  the  Race,  and  concludes  that  it  will 
always  be  a  factor  in  its  evolution.  Jesus  did 
not  create  Religion,  it  is  a  human  instinct.  He 
defined  it,  and  Jesus'  synonym  for  the  faculty  of 
Religion  is  Faith. 

Jesus  as  the  Prophet  of  Religion  was  ready 
to  submit  every  word  of  His  teaching  to 
Conscience  and  Reason.  He  never  suggested 
that  what  would  have  been  immoral  in  man 
might  be  moral  in  God.  His  argument  was 
ever  from  the  good  in  man  to  the  best  in  God. 
Human  fatherhood  was  a  faint  suggestion  of 
Divine  Fatherhood.  '  What  man  is  there  of 
you,  whom  if  his  son  ask  bread,  will  he  give 
him  a  stone?  ...  If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know 
how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your  children,  how 
much  more  shall  your  Father  which  is  in  Heaven 
give  good  things  to  them  that  ask  Him  ?  '  He 


i34       THE    MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

never  insisted  that  what  was  absolutely  in- 
credible to  man  was  therefore  all  the  more 
likely  to  be  true  with  God,  but  used  the  human 
as  the  shadow  of  the  divine.  Common  sense  in 
man  was  Grace  in  God.  '  What  man  of  you, 
having  an  hundred  sheep,  if  he  lose  one  of  them, 
doth  not  leave  the  ninety  and  nine  in  the  wil- 
derness, and  go  after  that  which  is  lost  till  he 
find  it?'  Jesus  claimed  no  exemption  for  His 
doctrine  from  the  Law  of  Righteousness  or  the 
Law  of  Fitness,  but  it  was  in  another  court  He 
chose  to  state  His  case  for  decision. 

When  Jesus  made  His  chief  appeal  to  the  in- 
dividual He  addressed  Himself  to  Faith.  He 
asked  many  things  of  men,  but  the  first  and  last 
duty  was  to  believe.  Faith  lay  behind  life  ;  it 
formed  character,  it  inspired  discipline.  '  What 
shall  we  do,'  said  captious  Jews,  '  that  we  might 
work  the  works  of  God  ?'  Jesus  answered  and 
said  unto  them,  '  This  is  the  work  of  God,  that 
ye  believe  on  Him  whom  He  hath  sent.'  Before 
the  soul  came  to  perfection  it  would  have  to 
suffer,  but  it  must  begin  by  believing,  else  there 
could  be  no  Religion.  Jesus'  mind  was  con- 
tinually fixed  on  Faith ;  the  word  was  ever  on 
His  lips.  It  was  the  recurring  decimal  of  His 


FAITH    THE   SIXTH    SENSE          135 

thinking,  the  keynote  of  His  preaching.  His 
custom  was  to  divide  men  into  classes  from  the 
standpoint  of  Religion,  not  morals — those  who 
believed,  those  who  believed  not.  He  marvelled 
twice  :  once  at  men's  unbelief,  once  at  a  Roman 
centurion's  faith.  When  any  one  sought  His 
help  He  demanded  faith.  When  He  rebuked 
His  disciples  it  was  usually  because  they  had 
little  faith.  Understand  what  Jesus  meant  by 
Faith  and  you  understand  what  Jesus  meant  by 
Religion. 

Just  as  a  ship  is  kept  in  the  waterway  by  the 
buoys  on  either  side,  so  does  one  arrive  at 
Jesus'  idea  of  Faith  by  grasping  the  startling 
fact  that  it  was  quite  different  from  the  idea  of 
His  own  day.  The  contemporary  believer  of 
Jesus  was  a  Pharisee,  and  his  faith  stood  in  the 
passionate  acceptance  of  a  national  tradition. 
He  believed  that  the  Jewish  nation  was  the 
exclusive  people  of  God,  and  that  Jerusalem 
would  yet  be  the  metropolis  of  the  world,  with 
a  thousand  inferences  and  regulations  that  had 
grown  like  fungi  on  the  trunk  of  this  stately 
hope.  It  was  contrary  to  fact  to  say  a  Pharisee 
believed  in  God :  it  came  out  that  he  did  not 
know  God  when  he  saw  Him.  It  is  correct  to 


136      THE    MIND    OF    THE    MASTER 

say  that  he  believed  in  a  dogma  which,  in  an- 
other age,  might  have  been  that  of  the  Holy 
Trinity,  but  in  his  age  happened  to  be  that  of  the 
national  destiny.  The  dogma  of  the  monopoly 
of  God  was  difficult  to  hold,  being  vulnerable 
both  from  the  side  of  God  and  man.  Jesus  Him- 
self showed  that  it  did  not  correspond  with  the 
nature  of  God,  whose  mercy  was  not  a  matter  of 
ethnology.  '  I  tell  you  of  a  truth  . . .  many  lepers 
were  in  Israel  in  the  time  of  Eliseus  the  prophet, 
and  none  of  them  was  cleansed,  saving  Naaman 
the  Syrian.'  He  pointed  out  that  it  was  con- 
tradicted by  the  nature  of  man,  whose  piety 
was  not  a  matter  of  geography.  '  I  say  unto 
you,  That  many  shall  come  from  the  east  and 
west,  and  shall  sit  down  with  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob  in  the  kingdom  of  Heaven.'  While 
this  dogma  had  the  advantage  of  being  patriotic, 
it  had  the  misfortune  of  being  incredible  to  any 
fair-minded  and  reasonable  person.  You  could 
only  believe  it  by  shutting  your  eyes  to  facts, 
and  making  the  most  intolerable  assumptions. 
Faith  with  a  Pharisee  was  the  opposite  of 
Reason. 

Jesus  also  had  a  contrast  in  the  background 
of  His  mind,  and  it  throws  His  idea  of  Faith 


FAITH    THE    SIXTH    SENSE         137 

into  bold  relief.  '  Master,'  said  certain  of  the 
Scribes  and  Pharisees  to  Jesus,  'we  would  see  a 
sign  from  Thee.'  It  was  dangerous,  they  con- 
sidered, to  let  truth  stand  on  her  merits  :  for  a 
prophet  to  rest  his  claim  on  his  character.  It 
was  safer  to  shift  from  truth  to  miracles  and  to 
depend  on  the  intervention  of  the  supernatural. 
Jesus  was  angry  because  this  wanton  demand 
for  a  sign  was  the  tacit  denial  of  Faith,  and  the 
open  confession  of  an  irreligious  heart.  '  An 
evil  and  adulterous  generation,'  He  said,  '  seek- 
eth  after  a  sign.'  A  nobleman  was  impressed 
by  the  spiritual  power  of  Jesus,  and  besought 
Him  to  heal  his  sick  son.  His  faith  was  strong 
enough  to  believe  that  Jesus  could  do  this  good 
work;  it  was  too  weak  to  believe  that  Jesus 
could  work  at  a  distance.  Faith  in  this  man's 
mind  was  fettered  by  conditions  of  sight,  and  so 
was  less  than  faith.  '  Except,' said  Jesus,  'ye 
see  signs  and  wonders  ye  will  not  believe.' 
When  Jesus  rose  from  the  dead  He  found  that 
one  of  His  apostles  had  not  kept  Easter  Day, 
and  would  not  accept  His  Resurrection  unless 
Jesus  afforded  him  physical  proof  of  the  most 
humble  and  elementary  kind.  Jesus  conceded 
to  Love  what  could  not  be  given  to  faith,  and 


138      THE   MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

St.  Thomas,  who  had  lost  faith  in  Jesus' 
humanity,  rose  to  the  faith  of  His  divinity. 
But  Jesus  reproached  him,  and  rated  his  faith 
at  a  low  value.  It  was  only  a  bastard  faith  that 
had  not  freed  itself  of  sight.  '  Because  thou 
hast  seen  Me,  thou  hast  believed :  bles.sed  are 
they  that  have  not  seen  and  yet  have  believed.' 
'  What,'  said  St.  Augustine,  '  is  Faith,  but  to 
believe  what  you  do  not  see  ? '  It  was  a  happy 
epitome  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  With  Jesus 
Faith  is  the  opposite  of  sight. 

Jesus  crystallised  the  idea  of  Faith  which  is 
held  in  solution  throughout  the  Bible,  and  rests 
on  the  assumption  of  two  worlds.  There  is  the 
physical  world  which  lies  round  us  on  every 
side,  and  of  which  our  bodies  are  a  part.  This 
is  one  environment,  and  the  instrument  of 
knowledge  here  is  sight.  There  is  the  spiritual 
world  which  is  hidden  by  the  veil  of  the  physical, 
and  of  which  our  souls  are  a  part.  This  is 
another  environment,  and  the  instrument  of 
knowledge  here  is  faith.  There  is  an  order  in 
the  education  of  Humanity,  and  the  first  lesson 
is  not  faith  but  sight.  The  race,  and  each 
individual  in  his  turn,  begins  with  the  ex- 
perience of  the  physical :  seeing  visible  objects, 


3^     l\tr\     i/- 

« t-uLwv-v^^-0    JL*  K-rvv 


FAITH    THE   SIXTH    SENSE          139 

handling  material  possessions,  hearing  audible 
voices,  looking  at  flesh-and-blood  people.  It  is 
a  new  and  hard  lesson  to  realise  the  spiritual : 
to  enter  into  the  immaterial,  inaudible,  invisible, 
intangible  life  of  the  soul ;  to  catch  a  voice  that 
only  calls  within,  to  follow  a  mystical  presence 
through  a  trackless  wilderness,  to  wait  for  an 
inheritance  that  eye  hath  not  seen,  to  store  our 
treasure  on  the  other  side  of  the  grave.  This  is 
to  leave  our  kindred  and  our  father's  house,  and 
to  go  into  a  land  which  God  will  show  us.  It 
is  to  emerge  from  the  physical,  it  is  to  enter 
into  the  spiritual  sphere.  It  is  an  immense 
advance  ;  it  is  a  tremendous  risk.  Any  one 
who  shifts  the  centre  of  his  life  from  the  world 
which  is  seen  to  the  world  which  is  unseen 
deserves  to  be  called  a  believer.  Abraham  was 
the  first  man  in  history  who  dared  to  make  this 
venture  and  to  cast  himself  on  God.  He  dis- 
covered the  new  world  of  the  soul,  and  is  to 

this  day  the  father  of  the  faithful. 

- 
Jesus  insisted  on  Faith  for  the  same  reason 

that  a  mathematician  relies  on  the  sense  of 
numbers,  or  an  artist  on  the  sense  of  beauty : 
it  was  the  one  means  of  knowledge  in  His 
department.  He  was  the  Prophet  of  God  and 


140     THE   MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

must  address  the  God-faculty  in  man.  Between 
Faith  and  God  there  was  the  same  correspond- 
ence as  between  the  eye  and  light.  Faith 
proves  God  :  God  demands  Faith.  When  any 
one  ignored  Faith  and  fell  back  on  sight  in  the 
quest  for  God  Jesus  was  in  despair.  Before 
such  wilful  stupidity  He  was  amazed  and  help- 
less. You  want  to  see,  was  His  constant 
complaint,  when  in  the  nature  of  things  you 
must  believe.  There  is  one  sphere  where  sight 
is  the  instrument  of  knowledge  :  use  it  there — 
it  is  not  my  sphere.  There  is  another  where 
faith  is  the  instrument ;  use  it  there — that 
is  my  sphere.  But  do  not  exchange  your 
instruments.  You  cannot  see  what  is  spiritual ; 
you  might  as  well  expect  to  hear  a  picture. 
What  you  see  you  do  not  believe ;  it  is  a  mis- 
nomer ;  you  see  it.  What  you  believe  you 
cannot  see ;  it  would  be  an  absurdity ;  you 
believe  it.  Faith  is  the  instinct  of  the  spiritual 
world :  it  is  the  sixth  sense — the  sense  of  the 
unseen.  Its  perfection  may  be  the  next  step 
in  the  evolution  of  the  Race. 

Jesus  continually  offered  Himself  as  the 
object  of  Faith  because  He  was  the  Revelation 
of  the  unseen  world.  Believe  on  Me,  He  said 


FAITH   THE    SIXTH    SENSE          141 

with  authority,  not  on  the  ground  that  He  was 
God,  whom  no  man  could  see,  but  because  He 
was  sent  by  God,  whom  He  declared.  '  Shew 
us  the  Father  and  it  sufficeth  us,'  was  the  con- 
fused cry  of  Faith.  '  He  that  hath  seen  Me 
hath  seen  the  Father/  was  Jesus'  answer.  To 
see  Jesus  was  not  sight :  it  was  Faith.  Sight 
only  showed  a  Jewish  peasant,  and  therefore 
Jesus  said  once  to  the  Jews,  'Ye  also  have  seen 
Me  and  believe  not.'  Faith  detected  His  veiled 
glory ;  therefore  Jesus  said  to  St.  Peter  on  his 
great  confession,  '  Flesh  and  blood  hath  not 
revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my  Father  which  is 
in  Heaven.'  Jesus  did  not  depend  on  His 
metaphysical  equality  with  the  Father,  but  on 
His  moral  likeness  to  the  Father — not  on  His 
eternal  generation,  but  on  His  spiritual  charac- 
ter. Reason  must  decide  whether  Jesus  be  God 
and  Man  in  two  distinct  natures  and  one  per- 
son :  it  is  the  function  of  faith  to  respond  to 
His  Divine  excellence,  who  was 

'  Fulfilled  with  God-head  as  a  cup 
Filled  with  a  precious  essence.' 

God  was  made  visible  and  beautiful  to  Faith 
as  Jesus  spoke  and  worked,  and  the  denial  of 
Jesus  was  the  denial  of  God.  'The  Father 


i42      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

Himself,  which  hath  sent  Me,  hath  borne  wit- 
ness of  Me.  Ye  have  neither  heard  His  voice  at 
any  time  nor  seen  His  shape ;  and  ye  have  not 
His  word  abiding  in  you,  for  Whom  He  hath 
sent  ye  believe  not.'  Faith  fulfils  itself  in  the 
discovery  and  acceptance  of  Jesus  ;  beyond 
him  nothing  is  to  be  desired,  no  one  to  be  im- 
agined. As  Mr.  T.  H.  Green  says,  '  Faith  is 
the  communication  of  the  Divine  Spirit  by 
which  Christ  as  the  revealed  God  dwells  in  our 
heart.  It  is  the  awakening  of  the  Spirit  of 
Adoption  whereby  we  cry,  Abba,  Father.' 

Two  questions  which  harass  the  religious 
mind  in  our  day  were  never  anticipated  by 
Jesus'  hearers  :  they  were  impossible  under  His 
idea  of  Faith.  When  Faith  is  an  isolated  and 
subtle  act  of  the  soul,  some  will  always  ask, 
What  is  Faith  ?  and  some  will  always  reply, 
There  are  seven  kinds,  more  or  less,  and  the 
end  will  be  hopeless  confusion.  If  Faith  be 
defined  as  the  sense  of  the  unseen  which  de- 
tects, recognises,  loves,  and  trusts  the  goodness 
existing  in  numerous  forms  and  persons  in  the 
world,  and  rises  to  its  height  in  trusting  Him 
who  is  its  source  and  sum,  then  it  is  needless 
to  inquire,  '  What  is  Faith  ?  '  We  are  walking 


FAITH   THE   SIXTH    SENSE  143 

by  Faith  in  one  world  every  day  with  our  souls, 
as  we  are  walking  by  sight  in  another  world 
with  our  bodies.  No  one  asked  Jesus,  '  How 
can  Faith  be  obtained  ? '  because  Jesus  did  not 
regard  Faith  as  an  arbitrary  gift  of  the  Al- 
mighty, or  an  occasional  visitant  to  favoured 
persons,  but  as  one  of  the  senses  of  the  soul. 
Jesus  did  not  divide  men  into  those  who  had 
Faith  and  those  who  had  not,  but  into  those 
who  used  the  faculty,  and  those  who  refused  to 
use  it.  He  expected  people  to  believe  when  He 
presented  evidence,  as  you.  expect  one  to  look  if 
you  show  him  a  picture.  One  might  have  weak 
faith  as  one  might  have  short  sight :  one  might 
be  faithless  as  one  might  be  blind.  That  is 
beside  the  question.  The  Race  has  sight,  al- 
though a  few  may  be  blind,  and  the  Race  has 
Faith,  although  a  few  may  not  believe. 

Jesus  regarded  the  feeblest  effort  of  this 
faculty  with  hope  because  it  lifted  the  soul 
above  the  limitations  of  this  life  and  allied  it  to 
the  Eternal.  '  With  God  all  things  are  possible/ 
and  therefore,  '  If  thou  canst  believe,  all  things 
are  possible  to  him  that  believeth.'  When  His 
disciples  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  higher  life  and 
prayed  '  Increase  our  Faith,'  Jesus  encouraged 


i44      THE    MIND    OF    THE   MASTER 

them.  '  If  ye  had  Faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard 
seed  (synonym  for  smallness),  ye  might  say  unto 
this  sycamine  tree  (synonym  for  greatness),  Be 
thou  plucked  up  by  the  root,  and  be  thou 
planted  in  the  sea  ;  and  it  should  obey  you.  It 
was  not  easy  to  believe  strongly  any  more  than 
to  see  far,  and  Faith,  like  any  other  faculty, 
must  be  trained  by  discipline.  Jesus  was  evi- 
dently satisfied  with  the  father  who  said  with 
tears,  '  Lord,  I  believe  ;  help  Thou  mine  unbe- 
lief,' and  ever  cast  His  protection  over  strug- 
gling Faith.  Positive  unbelief  or  absolute  in- 
capacity of  Faith,  Jesus  refused  to  pity  or  con- 
done. It  was  not  a  misfortune :  it  was  a  wilful 
act.  It  was  atrophy  through  misuse  or  neglect, 
and  was,  to  His  mind,  sin. 

This  judgment  would  be  a  gross  injustice  if 
Faith  were  an  accomplishment  of  saints ;  it  is 
an  inevitable  conclusion  if  Faith  be  an  inherent 
faculty.  No  one  could  be  reduced  to  this  help- 
less state  unless  he  had  habitually  shut  his 
soul  against  the  unseen  as  it  lapped  him  round 
and  had  fastened  his  whole  interest  on  this 
world.  It  was  one  of  the  paradoxes  of  Jesus' 
day,  that  the  same  people  were  the  conventional 
believers  and  the  typical  unbelievers.  The 


FAITH    THE   SIXTH    SENSE  145 

Pharisees  believed  in  their  creed  with  pathetic 
tenacity  and  disbelieved  in  Jesus  with  hope- 
less obstinacy,  and  the  reason  of  their  faith 
and  their  unbelief  was  the  same.  It  was 
their  utter  and  unqualified  worldliness.  They 
believed  in  a  kingdom  where  its  citizens  strove 
for  the  chief  seats  of  the  synagogues  and  the 
highest  rooms  at  feasts  ;  they  were  offended 
with  a  kingdom  whose  type  was  a  little  child 
and  whose  Messiah  came  to  serve.  They  had 
lived  so  long  in  the  dark  of  vain  ambition  and 
material  aims,  that  their  eye-balls  had  withered, 
and  when  they  came  into  the  open  they  could 
not  see.  '  How  can  ye  believe,'  said  Jesus  to 
the  Jews,  illuminating  at  one  stroke  His  idea  of 
Faith  and  the  reason  of  their  unbelief,  'which 
receive  honour  one  of  another,  and  seek  not  the 
honour  that  cometh  from  God  only?' 

Jesus'  attitude  to  miracles  hangs  on  His  idea 
of  Faith.  Define  Faith  as  the  antagonist  of 
reason,  and  miracles  are  then  a  necessity.  They 
are  the  twelve  legions  of  angels  which  inter- 
vene on  the  side  of  Truth.  Define  Faith  as  the 
supplement  to  reason  in  the  sphere  of  the  un- 
seen, and  miracles  are  at  best  a  provisional 
assistance.  If  faith  had  been  alert  and  strong, 
K 


146     THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

then  miracles  had  been  an  incumbrance.  Since 
Faith  was  weak  and  inert,  miracles  served  a 
purpose.  For  a  moment  the  spiritual  order 
projected  itself  into  the  natural  and  arrested 
attention.  No  one  could  deny  another  state, 
and  he  might  be  roused  to  possess  it.  A  mira- 
cle was  a  sign,  a  lightning  flash  that  proves  the 
electricity  in  the  air  ;  otherwise  a  useless  and 
alarming  phenomenon  to  men.  Jesus  did  not 
think  highly  of  physical  miracles ;  He  was  an- 
noyed when  they  were  asked ;  He  wrought 
them  with  great  reserve  ;  He  depreciated  their 
spiritual  value  on  all  occasions.  If  blind  men 
could  not  see  the  light,  let  them  have  the 
lightning,  but  it  was  a  poor  makeshift.  '  If  I 
do  not  the  works  of  My  father,  believe  me  not. 
But  if  I  do,  though  ye  believe  not  Me  (recognize 
Me),  believe  the  works,  that  ye  may  know  and 
believe  that  the  Father  is  in  Me  and  I  in  Him.' 
So  He  put  it  to  the  Jews,  and  His  heart  some- 
times failed  Him  about  His  own  disciples. 
'  Believe  Me  that  I  am  in  the  Father  and  the 
Father  in  Me :  or  else  believe  Me  for  the  very 
works'  sake.' 

'  You  stick  a  garden-plot  with  ordered  twigs, 
To  show  inside  lie  germs  of  herbs  unborn, 


FAITH   THE   SIXTH   SENSE          147 

And  check  the  careless  step  would  spoil  their  birth  ; 
But  when  herbs  wave,  the  guardian  twigs  may  go. 
.     .     .     This  book's  fruit  is  plain, 
Nor  miracles  need  prove  it  any  more.' 


Jesus  was  Himself  the  one  convincing  and 
permanent  miracle,  the  '  avenue  into  the  un- 
seen.' When  any  one  believes  in  Jesus  he  has 
the  key  of  revelation  and  the  vision  of  Heaven. 
'  Because  I  said  unto  thee,  I  saw  thee  under  the 
fig  tree,  believest  thou  ?  thou  shalt  see  greater 
things  than  these.  And  He  saith  unto  him, 
Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  hereafter  ye 
shall  see  Heaven  open,  and  the  angels  of  God 
ascending  and  descending  upon  the  Son  of 
man.' 

With  Jesus'  idea  of  faith  religion  is  indepen- 
dent of  external  evidence,  and  carries  a  warrant 
in  her  own  bosom.  The  foundation  of  Faith  is 
a  grave  problem,  and  its  difficulty  is  admirably 
raised  in  an  Eastern  legend.  The  world  rests  on 
an  elephant.  Very  good:  and  the  elephant  itself 
on  a  tortoise  :  and  the  tortoise  ?  on  air — sooner 
or  later  you  come  to  air — no  foundation.  There 
are  two  conceivable  grounds  on  which  Faith  can 
stablish  herself,  and  each  is  a  priceless  assistance. 
One  is  the  testimony  of  faithful  people  in  all 


148      THE  MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

the  ages;  this  is  an  infallible  Church.  The 
other  is  that  '  volume  which  is  a  Divine  sup- 
plement to  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  con- 
science '  :  this  is  an  infallible  Book.  But  what 
is  to  certify  the  Church  or  the  Book  ?  Their 
character  alone  can  be  their  certificate,  and  how 
am  I  to  identify  this  character  save  by  my 
Faith  ?  We  end  where  we  began — with  Faith, 
which  must  be  self-verifying  and  self-sustaining. 
We  believe  in  Jesus,  not  because  the  prophets 
anticipated  Him  or  disciples  have  magnified 
Him,  but,  in  the  last  issue,  because  He  is  such 
an  one  as  we  must  believe.  Jesus  is  the  justi- 
fication because  He  is  the  satisfaction  of  Faith. 
Faith  is  thankful  for  every  aid,  and  strengthens 
herself  on  the  Bible,  but  Faith  is  self-sufficient. 
'  In  its  true  nature,'  to  quote  Mr.  Green  again, 
'  Faith  can  be  justified  by  nothing  but  itself,' 
or,  as  John  Baptist  has  it,  '  What  He  hath  seen 
and  heard,  that  He  testifieth  ...  he  that 
hath  received  His  testimony  hath  set  to  his 
seal  that  God  is  true.' 

Jesus'  idea  of  Faith  explained  His  contradic- 
tory attitude  to  this  visible  world,  which  was 
sometimes  one  of  friendliness,  sometimes  one  of 
watchfulness.  When  He  saw  the  world  as  the 


FAITH   THE    SIXTH    SENSE          149 

shadow  of  the  real,  He  loved  it  and  wove  it 
into  an  endless  parable.  Its  fertility,  tenderness, 
richness,  brilliancy  were  all  signs  of  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven  fulfilled  in  Himself.  '  I  am  the 
true  vine  ; '  'I  am  the  good  Shepherd  ' ;  '  I  am 
the  Light  of  the  world ' ;  He  was  the  '  living 
water.'  He  was  the  substance  of  every  appear- 
ance :  the  truth  under  every  form.  The  spiritual 
was  embodied  in  this  world,  as  Jesus  was  God 
in  human  flesh,  and  he  that  believed,  like  St. 
John,  could  see.  This  was  the  appreciation  of 
the  world.  When  Jesus  thought  of  the  world 
as  the  veil  of  the  spiritual,  He  was  cencerned,  and 
warned  His  disciples  lest  they  should  be  caught 
by  the  glitter  of  the  visible,  lest  they  should  be 
held  in  the  prison  of  the  material.  They  must 
have  a  sense  of  proportion,  seeking  first  the 
Kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness :  they 
must  not  fret  about  this  world,  knowing  it  to 
be  an  appendage  of  the  Kingdom.  They  ought 
not  to  lay  up  for  themselves  treasures  on  earth, 
because  they  would  be  lost ;  they  must  store 
their  treasures  in  heaven,  because  they  would 
last.  They  ought  not  to  fear  the  trials  of  this 
life,  because  persecution  cannot  injure  the  soul ; 
they  ought  to  fear  spiritual  disaster  only, 


150       THE   MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

because  it  is  destruction  to  be  cast  into  hell  fire. 
He  that  seeks  to  house  his  soul  in  barns  is  a 
fool ;  he  that  prepares  an  everlasting  dwelling- 
place  is  wise.  The  world  as  a  parable  is  perfect ; 
as  a  possession  it  is  worthless.  It  is  never  to 
be  compared  with  the  soul,  or  the  kingdom  of 
God.  Jesus  did  not  denounce  the  world  as 
wicked,  He  disparaged  it  as  unreal.  This  is  the 
depreciation  of  the  world. 

When  Jesus'  idea  of  faith  is  accepted,  then 
its  province  in  human  life  will  be  finally  de- 
limitated, and  various  frontier  wars  brought  to 
an  end.  Painters  will  still  give  us  charming 
pictures  of  Faith  and  Reason,  but  they  will  no 
longer  represent  Reason  as  a  mailed  knight 
picking  his  way  from  stone  to  stone,  while  Faith 
as  a  winged  angel  floats  by  his  side.  Faith  and 
Reason  will  be  neighbouring  powers,  each 
absolute  in  its  own  region.  It  is  the  part  of 
Reason  to  verify  intellectual  conceptions  and 
apply  intellectual  principles,  and  Faith  must 
not  disturb  this  work.  It  is  the  part  of  Faith 
to  gather  those  hopes  and  feelings  which  lie 
outside  the  intellect,  and  Faith  must  not  be 
hampered  by  Reason.  When  the  knight  comes 
to  the  edge  of  the  cliff,  he  can  go  no  farther; 


FAITH   THE   SIXTH    SENSE          151 

then  Faith,  like  Angelico's  San  Michele,  opens 
his  strong  wings  and  passes  out  in  the  lonely 
quest  for  God.  An  Eastern  has  understood 
Jesus  perfectly.  '  What  Reason  is  to  things 
demonstrable/  he  says,  '  is  Faith  to  the  invisible 
realities  of  the  spirit  world.' 

One  may  also  hope  that  with  Christian  views 
of  Faith  we  shall  not  hear  any  more  of  a  recon- 
ciliation between  Science  and  Religion,  which 
is  as  if  you  proposed  to  reconcile  Geology  and 
Astronomy.  Science  has,  for  its  field,  everything 
material ;  religion,  everything  spiritual.  When 
the  scientist  comes,  as  he  constantly  docs,  on 
something  beyond  his  tests,  as,  for  instance, 
life,  he  ought  to  leave  it  to  Religion.  When 
the  saint  comes  on  something  material,  as,  for 
instance,  creation,  he  ought  to  leave  it  to 
Science.  Faith  has  no  apparatus  for  science  ; 
science  has  no  method  of  discovering  God. 
For  the  phenomena  of  the  universe  we  look  to 
Science  ;  for  the  facts  of  the  soul  to  Faith.  'A 
division  as  old  as  Aristotle,'  say  the  authors  of 
the  Unseen  Universe,  '  separates  speculators  into 
two  great  classes :  those  who  study  the  How  of 
the  universe,  and  those  who  study  the  Why. 
All  men  of  Science  are  embraced  in  the 


152       THE   MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

former  of   these ;  all   men  of   Religion   in   the 
latter.' 

Define  Faith  as  the  Religious  faculty,  and 
you  at  once  lift  from  its  shoulders  the  burden 
of  Theology.  In  the  minds  of  many,  Faith  and 
Religion  have  been  so  confounded  together  as 
to  be  practically  one,  and  Faith  has  been  exer- 
cised on  dogmas  when  it  should  have  been  rest- 
ing in  God.  Theology  is  a  Science  ;  it  is  created 
by  reason.  Religion  is  an  experience ;  it  is 
guided  by  faith.  The  Catholic  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity,  for  instance,  is  a  very  elaborate  effort 
of  reason,  and  is  not,  strictly  speaking,  within 
the  scope  of  faith.  When  one  says  '  I  believe ' 
in  the  Nicene  Creed,  one  means  that  he  assents 
to  the  theological  statement.  When  one  says 
'  Lord,  I  believe  '  in  Jesus'  sense,  one  means  that 
he  trusts — a  very  different  thing.  Jesus'  physical 
Resurrection,  in  the  same  way,  is  a  question  that 
can  only  be  decided  by  evidence,  and  is  within 
the  province  of  reason.  His  spiritual  Resurrec- 
tion is  a  drama  of  the  soul,  and  a  matter  of  faith. 
When  I  declare  my  belief  that  on  the  third 
day  Jesus  rose,  I  am  really  yielding  to  evi- 
dence. When  I  am  crucified  with  Christ,  buried 
with  Christ,  and  rise  to  newness  of  life  in 


FAITH   THE   SIXTH    SENSE          153 

Christ,  I  am  believing    after   the  very  sense  of 
Jesus. 

Our  wisdom  in  this  day  of  confusion  is  to 
extricate  Faith  from  all  entanglements,  and 
exercise  the  noblest,  surest,  strongest  faculty  of 
our  nature  on  Jesus  Christ,  whose  Person  con- 
stitutes the  evidence  of  the  unseen,  whose  one 
demand  on  all  men  is  Trust,  whose  promise, 
fulfilled  to  an  innumerable  multitude,  is  Rest. 

'  Remember  what  a  martyr  said 
On  the  rude  tablet  overhead  : 
I  was  born  sickly,  poor,  and  mean, 
A  slave  ;  no  misery  could  screen 
The  holders  of  the  pearl  of  price 
From  Caesar's  envy  ;  therefore  twice 
I  fought  with  beasts,  and  three  times  saw 
My  children  suffer  by  his  law. 
At  last,  my  own  release  was  earned, 
I  was  some  time  in  being  burned  ; 
But  at  the  close  a  hand  came  through 
The  fire  above  my  head,  and  drew 
My  soul  to  Christ,  whom  now  I  see.' 


THE    LAW   OF    SPIRITUAL 
GRAVITATION 


VIII 

THE   LAW  OF   SPIRITUAL   GRAVITA- 
TION 

'  This  is  my  commandment,'  said  Jesus, '  that 
ye  love  one  another  as  I  have  loved  you  '  ; 
4  Every  particle  of  matter  in  the  universe,'  said 
Newton,  'attracts  every  other  particle  with  a 
force  directly  proportioned  to  the  mass  of  the 
attracting  particle,  and  inversely  to  the  square 
of  the  distance,'  are  the  two  monumental  de- 
liverances in  human  knowledge,  and  the  Law 
of  Love  in  the  sphere  of  metaphysics  is  the 
analogue  of  the  law  of  gravitation  in  the  sphere 
of  physics.  The  measure  of  ignorance  in 
Science  has  been  isolation, when  nature  appears 
a  series  of  unconnected  departments.  The 
measure  of  ignorance  in  Religion  has  been 
selfishness,  when  the  Race  appears  a  certain 
number  of  individuals  fighting  each  for  his  own 
hand.  The  master  achievement  of  knowledge 


158       THE    MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

has  been  the  discovery  of  unity.  Before  New- 
ton, gravitation  was  holding  the  world  together ; 
it  was  his  honour  to  formulate  the  law.  Before 
Jesus,  Love  was  preventing  the  dissolution  of 
the  Race ;  it  was  His  glory  to  dictate  the  la\v. 
Newton  found  a  number  of  fragments  and  left 
a  physical  universe.  Jesus  found  a  multitude 
of  individuals  and  created  a  spiritual  kingdom. 
The  advance  from  a  congeries  of  individuals  to 
an  organised  society  is  marked  by  four  mile- 
stones. First,  we  are  simply  conscious  of  other 
men  and  accept  the  fact  of  their  existence  ;  we 
realise  our  mutual  dependence  and  come  to  a 
working  agreement.  This  is  the  infancy  of  the 
Race  and  conscience  is  not  yet  awake.  Then 
we  discover  that  there  are  certain  things  one 
must  not  do  to  his  neighbour,  and  certain  ser- 
vices one  may  expect  from  his  neighbour,  that 
to  injure  the  next  man  is  misery  and  to  help 
him  is  happiness.  This  is  the  childhood  of  the 
Race,  and  conscience  now  asserts  itself.  After- 
wards we  begin  to  review  the  situation  and  to 
collect  our  various  duties :  we  arrange  them 
under  heads  and  state  them  in  black  and  white. 
This  is  the  youth  of  the  Race,  and  reason  is 
now  in  action.  Finally,  we  take  up  our  list  of 


LAW  OF  SPIRITUAL  GRAVITATION  159 

black  and  white  rules  and  try  to  settle  their 
connection.  It  is  not  possible  to  trace  them  all 
to  one  root  and  comprehend  them  in  one  act  ? 
What  a  light  to  conscience,  a  relief  to  reason,  a 
joy  to  the  heart !  This  is  the  mature  manhood 
of  the  Race,  and  the  heart  is  now  in  evidence. 
From  an  instinct  .to  duties,  from  duties  to  rules, 
and  now  from  rules  to  Law.  State  that  Law 
and  the  Race  becomes  one  society. 

Jesus  came  at  a  point  of  departure ;  He 
received  the  race  from  Moses  and  led  it  into 
liberty.  The  Jew  of  Jesus'  day  was,  in  spite  of 
all  his  limitations,  the  most  spiritual  man  in 
the  world,  and  the  more  thoughtful  Jews  were 
sick  of  a  code  and  thirsting  for  a  principle. 
'  Master,'  said  a  scribe  to  Jesus,  '  which  is  the 
great  commandment  in  the  law  ? '  and  this 
anonymous  seeker  after  truth  has  suffered  un- 
just reproach.  He  has  been  imagined  a  mere 
pedant  held  in  the  bonds  of  a  vain  theology,  or 
a  cunning  sophist  anxious  to  entrap  Jesus  into 
a  war  of  words.  He  ought  rather  to  be  thought 
of  as  an  earnest  student  whose  mind  had  out- 
grown a  worn-out  system,  and  who  was  waiting 
for  the  new  order.  His  desire  was  not  a  puerile 
comparison  of  rules  ;  he  had  tasted  the  tedium 


160     THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

of  such  debates  in  Pharisaic  circles :  his  desire 
was  to  get  from  the  branches  to  the  root.  He 
believed  that  Jesus  had  made  the  discovery. 
Jesus  recognised  a  congenial  mind  and  placed  a 
generous  interpretation  on  the  scribe's  words, 
'  Thou  art  not  far/  He  said,  '  from  the  kingdom 
of  God.' 

Jesus  addressed  Himself  to  the  unity  of  moral 
law  in  His  first  great  public  utterance,  and  only 
concluded  His  treatment  before  His  arrest  in 
the  garden.  His  sermon  on  the  mount  was  a 
luminous  and  comprehensive  investigation  of 
the  ten  words  with  a  purpose — to  detect  their 
spiritual  source  and  organic  connection.  It  was 
the  analysis  of  a  code  in  order  to  indentify  the 
principle.  It  was  the  experimental  search  for  a 
law  conducted  with  every  circumstance  of 
spiritual  interest  before  a  select  audience  ;  it 
was  a  sustained  suggestion  by  a  score  of  illus- 
trations that  the  law  had  been  found.  Moses 
said,  '  do  this  or  do  that.'  Jesus  refrained  from 
regulations — He  proposed  that  we  should  love. 
Jesus,  while  hardly  mentioning  the  word,  plant- 
ed the  idea  in  His  disciples'  minds,  that  Love 
was  Law.  For  three  years  He  exhibited  and 
enforced  Love  as  the  principle  of  life,  until, 


LAW  OF  SPIRITUAL  GRAVITATION  161 

before  he  died,  they  understood  that  all  duty 
to  God  and  man  was  summed  up  in  Love.  Prog- 
ress in  the  moral  world  is  ever  from  complexity 
to  simplicity.  First  one  hundred  duties  ;  after- 
wards they  are  gathered  into  ten  command- 
ments ;  then  they  are  reduced  to  two :  love  of 
God  and  love  of  man  ;  and,  finally,  Jesus  says 
His  last  word:  'This  is  My  commandment, 
that  ye  love  one  another  as  I  have  loved  you.' 

When  Jesus  proposes  to  sum  up  the  whole 
duty  of  man  in  Love,  one  is  instantly  charmed 
with  the  sentiment,  and  understands  how  it 
made  the  arid  legalism  of  the  scribes  to  blossom 
like  the  rose.  How  can  one  conquer  sin  ?  How 
can  one  come  to  perfection  ?  How  can  one 
have  fellowship  with  God  ?  How  can  one  save 
the  world  ?  And  to  a  hundred  questions  of 
this  kind  Jesus  has  one  answer :  '  Love  the  man 
next  you.'  It  is  the  poetry  of  idealism  ;  it  is 
quite  beyond  criticism  as  a  counsel  of  perfec- 
tion. But  we  are  haunted  with  the  feeling  that 
this  is  not  a  serious  treatment  of  the  subject. 
We  are  inclined  to  turn  from  the  Galilean 
dreamer  and  fall  back  on  the  casuists.  It  is 
one  of  our  limitations  to  imagine  that  poetry 
is  something  less  than  truth  instead  of  its  only 
L 


162       THE    MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

adequate  expression,  and  that  the  heart  is  an  im- 
pulsive child  whose  vagaries  have  to  be  checked, 
instead  of  the  imperial  power  in  human  nature. 
We  are  redeemed  in  this  matter  by  the  inspira- 
tion of  Jesus.  Had  Jesus  repeated  the  hackneyed 
programme  of  negation  with  a  table  of  '  shalt 
nots/  He  would  have  afforded  another  dreary 
instance  of  moral  failure.  When  Jesus  publish- 
ed His  positive  principle  of  Love,  and  left  each 
man  to  draw  up  his  own  table,  He  gave  a  bril- 
liant pledge  of  spiritual  success.  By  this  magi- 
cal word  of  Love  He  not  only  brought  the  dry 
bones  together  and  made  a  unity  ;  He  clothed 
them  with  flesh  and  made  a  living  body.  He 
may  have  forfeited  the  name  of  moralist,  He  has 
gained  the  name  of  Saviour. 

Jesus  was  not  an  agreeable  sentimentalist 
who  imagined  that  He  could  cleanse  the  world 
by  rose-water ;  He  was  the  only  thinker  who 
grasped  the  whole  situation  root  and  branch. 
He  did  not  propose  to  make  sin  illegal ;  that 
had  been  done  without  conspicuous  benefit. 
He  proposed  to  make  sin  impossible  by  replac- 
ing it  with  love.  If  sin  be  an  act  of  self-will, 
each  person  making  himself  the  centre,  then 
Love  is  the  destruction  of  sin,  because  love  con- 


LAW  OF  SPIRITUAL  GRAVITATION  163 

nects  instead  of  isolating.  No  one  can  be  en- 
vious, avaricious,  hard-hearted  ;  no  one  can  be 
gross,  sensual,  unclean,  if  he  loves.  Love  is  the 
death  of  all  bitter  and  unholy  moods  of  the 
soul,  because  Love  lifts  the  man  out  of  -himself 
and  teaches  him  to  live  in  another.  Jesus  did 
not  think  it  needful  to  eulogise  the  virtues  :  it 
would  have  been  a  work  of  supererogation  when 
He  had  insisted  on  Love.  It  is  bathos,  for 
instance,  to  instruct  a  mother  in  tenderness;  the 
maternal  instinct  will  fulfil  itself.  Jesus  has 
changed  ethics  from  a  crystal  that  can  only 
grow  by  accretion  into  a  living  plant  that  flow- 
ers in  its  season.  He  exposed  the  negative 
principle  of  morals  in  His  empty  house  swept 
and  garnished ;  He  vindicated  the  positive 
principle  in  His  house  held  by  a  strong  man 
armed.  The  individualism  of  selfishness  is  the 
disintegrating  force  which  has  cursed  this  world, 
segregating  the  individual  and  rending  society 
to  pieces.  The  altruism  of  Love  is  the  consoli- 
dating force  which  will  save  the  world,  reconcil- 
ing every  man  to  his  fellows  and  recreating 
society.  When  Jesus  makes  Love  the  basis  of 
social  life,  He  does  not  need  to  condescend  to 
details  ;  He  has  established  unity. 


164      THE    MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

When  Jesus  gave  His  doctrine  of  Love  in  its 
final  form,  one  is  struck  by  a  startling  omission. 
He  laid  on  His  disciples  the  repeated  charge  of 
Love  to  one  another,  He  did  not  once  command 
them  to  love  God.  While  His  preachers  have 
in  the  main  exhorted  men  to  love  God,  Jesus 
in  the  main  exhorted  them  to  love  their  fellow- 
men.  This  was  not  an  accident — a  bias  given 
to  His  mind  by  the  immense  suffering  in  the 
world  :  it  was  an  intention — the  revelation  of 
Jesus'  idea  of  Love.  Conventional  religion  di- 
vides love  into  provinces — natural  love,  ranging 
from  the  interest  of  a  philanthropist  in  the  poor 
to  the  passion  of  a  mother  for  her  child,  and 
spiritual  love,  whose  humblest  form  is  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  Christian  Church  and  whose  highest 
is  the  devotion  of  the  soul  to  God.  This  arti- 
fice is  the  outcome  of  a  limited  vision  ;  it  has 
been  published  by  a  contracted  heart.  It  has 
ended  in  the  disparagement  of  natural  love  and 
the  unreality  of  spiritual  love.  Jesus  never 
once  sanctioned  this  mischievous  distinction  : 
He  bitterly  satirises  its  effect  on  conduct.  The 
Pharisee  offers  to  God  the  gift  which  ought 
to  have  gone  to  his  parents'  support — so  de- 
voted was  he  to  God,  so  lifted  above  ordinary 


LAW  OF  SPIRITUAL  GRAVITATION  165 

affection !  Our  Master  accepted  the  solidarity 
of  sin,  that  no  one  could  injure  a  fellow-creature 
without  hurting  God.  '  If  the  world  hate  you, 
ye  know  that  it  hated  Me  before  it  hated  you  ; ' 
and  '  He  that  hateth  Me,  hateth  My  Father 
also.'  He  accepted  with  as  little  reserve  the 
solidarity  of  Love — that  no  one  could  love  a 
fellow-creature  with  a  pure,  unselfish  passion 
without  loving  God.  '  He  that  receiveth  you 
receiveth  Me,  and  he  that  receiveth  Me  receiveth 
Him  that  sent  Me.'  As  St.  John  has  it,  with 
an  echo  of  past  words,  '  Beloved,  let  us  love  one 
another :  for  love  is  of  God ;  and  every  one 
that  loveth  is  born  of  God.'  Life  is  the  school 
of  love,  in  which  we  rise  from  love  of  mother 
and  wife  and  child  through  a  long  discipline 
of  sacrifice  to  the  love  of  God.  Love  is  the  law 
of  Life. 

It  was  the  habit  of  Jesus'  mind  to  trace  the 
seen  at  every  point  into  the  unseen,  and  He 
gave  the  law  of  Love  its  widest  and  farthest 
range.  He  was  not  content  with  insisting  that 
the  unity  of  the  human  stood  in  Love,  He  sug- 
gested that  Love  was  also  the  unity  of  the 
Divine.  The  same  bond  that  made  one  fellow- 
ship of  St.  John  and  St.  Peter  was  the  principle 


i66      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

of  communion  between  the  Father  and  the  Son. 
With  Jesus  the  Trinity  was  never  a  metaphysical 
conception — a  state  of  being ;  it  was  an  ethical 
fact — a  state  of  feeling.  It  was  a  revelation  of 
Love  which  found  its  life  in  sacrifice.  As  the 
Father  gave  the  Son,  so  the  Son  gave  Himself, 
and  as  the  Son  gave  Himself,  so  must  His  dis- 
ciples give  themselves  for  the  brethren.  God 
and  Christ  were  one  in  love ;  Christ  and  man 
were  one  in  love.  The  great  Law  had  full 
course,  and  God  and  man  were  united  in  the 
sacrifice  of  love.  '  Therefore  doth  my  Father 
love  Me,  because  I  lay  down  My  life  that  I 
might  take  it  again.  This  commandment  have 
I  received  of  My  Father.'  '  This  is  My  com- 
mandment, that  ye  love  one  another  as  I  have 
loved  you.'  '  If  ye  keep  My  commandments, 
ye  shall  abide  in  My  love ;  even  as  I  have  kept 
My  Father's  commandments  and  abide  in  His 
love.'  '  If  a  man  love  Me,  he  will  keep  My 
words :  and  My  Father  will  love  him,  and  we 
will  come  unto  him,  and  make  our  abode  with 
him.'  Perhaps  the  most  profound  symbol  of 
Jesus  was  the  washing  of  the  disciples'  feet,  and 
therefore  the  preamble  of  St.  John,  '  knowing  . . . 
that  He  was  come  from  God  and  went  to  God.' 


LAW  OF  SPIRITUAL  GRAVITATION  167 

It  seemed  only  an  act  of  lowly  and  kindly 
service  ;  it  really  was  an  illustration  of  the  Law 
which  holds  in  one  God  Almighty  and  the 
meanest  man  who  is  inhabited  by  Jesus'  Spirit. 

Apart  from  the  Incarnation,  which  is  the  i 
theoretical  ground  of  a  united  humanity,  and 
His  Spirit,  which  is  the  practical  influence 
working  towards  that  high  end,  Jesus  made  two 
contributions  to  the  cause  of  unity.  He  has 
stated  in  convincing  terms  the  principle  which 
alone  can  repair  the  disruption  in  society  and 
close  its  fissures.  What  rends  society  in  every 
land  is  the  conflict  between  the  rights  of  the  one 
and  the  rights  of  the  many,  and  harmony  can  only 
be  established  by  their  reconciliation.  Peace 
can  never  be  made  by  the  suppression  of  the 
individual — which  is  collectivism,  nor  by  the 
endless  sacrifice  of  a  hundred  for  the  profit  of 
one — which  is  individualism.  Jesus  came  to 
bring  each  man's  individuality  to  perfection, 
not  to  sink  him  in  the  mass.  Jesus  came  to 
rescue  the  poor  and  weak  from  the  tyranny  of 
power  and  ambition,  not  to  leave  them  in  bond- 
age. Both  ends  were  His,  and  both  are  em- 
braced in  His  new  commandment.  For  the 
ideal  placed  before  each  individual  is  not  rule 


i68       THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

but  service,  and  in  proportion  to  his  attainments 
will  be  his  sacrifices.  By  one  stroke  Jesus  secures 
the  welfare  of  the  many  who  share  in  the  suc- 
cess of  the  one,  and  the  sanctification  of  the 
one  whose  character  is  developed  by  his  service 
of  the  many.  It  will  not  be  necessary  to  cripple 
any  man's  power  lest  it  may  be  a  menace  to  his 
neighbours,  because  he  will  be  their  voluntary 
servant,  nor  will  his  neighbours  be  driven  to 
the  vice  of  oppression,  because  they  will  not 
fear.  Where  Jesus'  idea  prevails  a  rivalry  of 
service  will  be  the  habit  of  society,  and  he  will 
stand  highest  who  stoops  lowest  in  the  new 
order  of  life. 

Jesus  also  offered  in  the  Church  a  model  of 
the  perfect  society,  and  therefore  He  established 
the  Church  on  an  eternal  and  universal  principle. 
Wherever  a  number  of  isolated  individuals  come 
together  and  form  one  body  there  must  be  some 
bond  of  unity.  With  a  nation  it  is  geography — 
the  people  live  within  certain  degrees  of  latitude. 
With  a  party  it  is  opinion — its  members  bind 
themselves  for  a  common  end.  With  a  firm  it  is 
business — its  partners  trade  in  the  same  article. 
Jesus  contemplated  a  society  the  most  compre- 
hensive and  intense,  the  most  elastic  and 


LAW  OF  SPIRITUAL  GRAVITATION  169 

cohesive  in  history,  which  would  embrace  all 
countries,  suit  all  times,  cultivative  all  varieties, 
fulfil  all  aspirations.  It  was  the  ambition  of 
Jesus  as  the  Son  of  Man,  and  this  was  the 
question  before  His  mind :  What  delicate  and 
pervasive  moral  system  could  bind  into  one  the 
diverse  multitude  that  would  call  Him  Lord, 
so  that  I — some  obscure  nineteenth  century 
Christian — may  feel  at  home  in  St.  Paul's  Ca- 
thedral, or  at  St.  Peter's,  Rome,  or  in  the 
Metropolitan  Church  of  Athens,  or  at  a  Salva- 
tion Army  meeting?  This  were  indeed  an 
irresistible  illustration  of  spiritual  communion 
and  a  prophecy  of  the  unity  of  the  Race.  '  I 
belong,'  said  Angelique,  the  Abbess  of  Port 
Royal,  '  to  the  order  of  all  the  saints,  and  all 
the  saints  belong  to  my  order.'  What  is  the 
bond  of  this  mystical  order  ?  Jesus  stated  and 
vindicated  it  in  the  upper  room. 

It  is  the  fond  imagination  of  many  pious 
minds  that  the  basis  of  spiritual  unity  must  lie 
in  the  reason,  and  stand  in  uniformity  of  doc- 
trine. This  unfortunate  idea  has  been  the 
poisoned  spring  of  all  the  dissensions  that  have 
torn  Christ's  body  from  the  day  when  Eastern 
Christians  fought  in  the  streets  about  His  Di- 


170      THE   MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

vinity  to  the  long  years  when  Europe  was 
drenched  in  blood  about  His  lovely  Sacraments. 
It  is  surely  a  very  ghastly  irony  that  the  im- 
mense sorrow  of  the  world  has  been  infinitely 
increased  by  the  fierce  distractions  of  that  soci- 
ety which  Jesus  intended  to  be  the  peace- 
maker, and  that  Christian  divisions  should  have 
arisen  from  the  vain  effort  after  an  ideal  which 
Jesus  never  once  had  within  His  vision.  With 
St.  John  and  St.  Thomas,  Matthew  the  publican 
and  Simon  the  zealot  at  the  same  Holy  Table, 
it  is  not  likely  that  Jesus  expected  one  model 
of  thought :  with  His  profound  respect  for  the 
individual  and  His  sense  of  the  variety  of 
truth,  it  is  certain  He  did  not  desire  it. 

Jesus  realised  that  the  tie  which  binds  men 
together  in  life  is  not  forged  in  the  intellect 
but  in  the  heart.  Behind  nations  and  parties, 
behind  all  the  divisions  and  entanglements  of 
society  stands  the  family.  Love  is  the  first 
and  the  last  and  the  strongest  bond  in  experi- 
ence. It  conquers  distance,  outlives  all  changes, 
bears  the  strain  of  the  most  diverse  opinions. 
What  a  proof  of  Jesus'  divine  insight  that  He 
did  not  make  His  Church  a  school — whether  of 
the  Temple  or  the  Porch — but  n  family:  did 


LAW  OF  SPIRITUAL  GRAVITATION  171 

not  demand  in  His  farewell  that  His  disciples 
should  think  alike,  but  that  they  should  feel 
alike !  He  believed  it  possible  to  bind  men  to 
their  fellows  on  the  one  condition  that  they 
were  first  bound  fast  to  Him.  He  made  Him- 
self the  centre  of  eleven  men,  each  an  indepen- 
dent unit  ;  He  sent  through  their  hearts  the 
electric  flash  of  His  love  and  they  became  one. 
It  was  an  experiment  on  a  small  scale ;  it 
proved  a  principle  that  has  no  limits.  Unity  is 
possible  wherever  the  current  of  love  runs 
from  Christ's  heart  through  human  hearts  and 
back  to  Christ  again.  No  one  is  cast  out  unless 
he  refuse  to  love :  no  one  is  isolated  unless  he 
be  non-conducting.  Within  the  Church  visible, 
with  its  wearisome  forms  and  lamentable  con- 
troversies, lives  the  Church  invisible,  the  com- 
munion of  love,  and  its  spirit  is  a  perpetual 
witness  to  Christ's  mission  of  atonement :— 
'  That  they  all  may  be  one  ;  as  Thou,  Father, 
art  in  Me,  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  also  may 
be  one  in  us,  that  the  world  may  believe  that 

Thou  hast  sent  Me.' 

"~~! 
Whenever  doctrine  and  Love  have  entered 

the  lists,  not  as  friends  but  as  rivals,  Love  has  al- 
ways won  and  so  has  confirmed  the  wisdom  of 


i72     THE   MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

/Jesus.  He  has  had  servants  in  every  country 
distinguished  for  their  devout  spirit  and  con- 
troversial ability.  Their  generation  crowned 
them  for  their  zeal  against  heresy,  but  succeed- 
ing generations  conferred  a  worthier  immortal- 
ity. The  Church  forgot  their  polemics,  she 
kept  their  hymns.  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  de- 
populated Europe  in  order  to  conquer  the  Holy 
Land  with  the  sword  for  Him  who  preached 
peace  throughout  its  borders ;  but  we  only  re- 
member the  saint  who  wrote  : 

'  Jesus,  Thou  joy  of  loving  hearts.' 

Toplady  divided  his  time  between  composing 
hymns  instinct  with  love,  and  assailing  John 
Wesley  with  incredible  insolence.  His  acri- 
monious defence  of  the  Divine  Sovereignty  is 
buried  and  will  never  be  disinterred,  but  while 
the  Church  lasts  she  will  sing 

'  Rock  of  ages,  cleft  for  me.' 

Rutherford,  of  St.  Andrews,  laboured  at 
books  of  prodigious  learning  against  Prelacy, 
and  the  dust  lies  heavy  upon  them  this  day, 
but  the  letters  he  wrote  in  his  prison  on  the 
love  of  Christ  have  been  the  delight  of  Scot- 
tish mystics  for  two  centuries.  If  any  one 


LAW  OF  SPIRITUAL  GRAVITATION  173 

feels  compelled  to  attack  a  religious  neighbour, 
his  contemporaries  may  call  him  faithful,  his 
successors  will  endeavour  to  forget  him.  If 
any  one  can  worthily  express  the  devotion  of 
Christian  hearts,  his  words  will  pass  into  the 
heritage  of  Christendom.  What  is  not  of  love, 
dies  almost  as  soon  as  it  is  born  :  what  is  of 
love  lives  for  ever.  It  has  the  sanction  of 
Eternal  Law ;  it  has  in  it  the  breath  of  immor- 
tality. 

The  Christian  consciousness  grows  slowly 
into  the  mind  of  Jesus.  First  it  clings  to  legal-  ( 
ism  with  St.  Peter ;  afterwards  it  learns  faith 
with  St.  Paul ;  it  enters  at  last  into  love  with 
St.  John,  the  final  interpreter  of  Jesus.  We 
are  now  in  the  school  of  St.  John,  and  are  be- 
ginning to  discover  that  none  can  be  a  heretic 
who  loves,  nor  any  one  be  other  than  a  schis- 
matic who  does  not  love.  None  can  be  cast  out 
of  God's  kingdom  if  he  loves,  none  received 
into  it  if  he  does  not  love.  Usher  cannot  ex- 
communicate Rutherford  because  he  was  not 
ordained  by  a  Bishop,  nor  Rutherford  condemn 
Usher  because  he  was  a  head  and  front  of  Prel- 
acy. Channing  cannot  exclude  Faber  because 
he  believes  too  much,  or  Faber  exclude  Chan- 


174      THE  MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

ning  because  he  believes  too  little.  None  can 
read  Jesus'  exposition  of  Love  and  imagine 
such  moral  disorder.  It  would  be  the  suspen- 
sion of  spiritual  gravitation.  We  are  protected 
from  one  another  by  the  Magna  Charta  of  the 
kingdom :  we  are  under  a  Law  that  has  no  re- 
gard to  our  prejudices.  He  that  loves  is 
blessed  ;  he  that  hates  is  cursed — is  the  action 
of  an  automatic  law.  It  is  the  very  condition 
of  the  spiritual  world,  which  is  held  together 
by  love :  it  is  the  very  nature  of  God  Himself, 
who  is  Love. 

'  I'm  apt  to  think  the  man 

That  could  surround  the  sum  of  things  and  spy 
The  heart  of  God  and  secrets  of  His  Empire 
Would  speak  but  love,  with  him  the  bright  result 
Would  change  the  hue  of  intermediate  scenes 
And  make  one  thing  of  all  Theology,1 


IX 


DEVOTION   TO   A   PERSON   THE 
DYNAMIC   OF   RELIGION 

Nothing  is  easier  than  to  create  a  religion  ; 
one  only  needs  self-confidence  and  foolscap 
paper.  An  able  Frenchman  sat  down  in  his 
study  and  produced  Positivism,  which  some 
one  pleasantly  described  as  Catholicism  minus 
Christianity.  It  stimulated  conversation  in 
superior  circles  for  years,  and  only  yesterday 
Mr.  Frederic  Harrison  was  explaining  to  Pro- 
fessor Huxley  that  this  ingenious  invention  of 
M.  Comte  ought  to  be  taken  seriously.  An 
extremely  clever  woman  disappeared  into  Asia 
and  returned  with  another  religion  which  has 
distinctly  added  to  the  innocent  gaiety  of  the 
English  nation.  One  never  knows  when  a  new 
religion  may  not  be  advertised.  Various  in- 
teresting societies  are  understood  to  be  work- 
ing at  something,  and  each  novelty  receives  a 
M 


178      THE   MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

good-natured  welcome.  No  person  with  any 
sense  of  humour  resents  one  of  these  efforts  to 
stimulate  the  jaded  palate  of  society,  unless  it 
be  paraded  a  season  too  long  and  threatens  to 
become  a  bore.  Criticism  would  be  absurd  : 
you  might  as  well  analyze  Alice  in  Wonderland. 
Comparison  with  Christianity  is  impossible  :  it 
were  an  insult  to  Jesus. 

The  great  religions  of  the  East  compel  an- 
other treatment  ;  one  bows  before  them  with 
wonder  and  respect.  They  are  not  the  ephem- 
era of  fashion  ;  they  are  hoar  with  antiquity. 
They  are  not  the  pastime  of  a  coterie,  they 
have  shaped  the  destinies  of  innumerable  mil- 
lions. The  most  profound  instinct  of  the  soul 
breathes  in  their  creeds  and  clothes  itself  in 
their  forms,  and,  notwithstanding  their  limita- 
tions and  corruptions,  these  ancient  faiths  have 
each  made  some  contribution  to  the  Race.  One 
has  anticipated  the  self-renunciation  of  Jesus, 
another  has  asserted  the  mystery  of  the  Eternal,  •>- 
a  third  has  vindicated  the  unity  of  God,  and  a  J? 
fourth  has  saturated  with  filial  piety  the  future 
rivals  of  the  West.  It  were  unbelief  in  Divine 
Providence  to  deny  those  faiths  a  share  in  the 
development  of  humanity  :  it  were  inexcusable 


' 


THE   DYNAMIC    OF  RELIGION     179 

ignorance  to  regard  them  as  systems  of  organV 
iscd  iniquity.  They  bear  traces  of  noble  an- 
cestry, they  preserve  in  their  history  a  record 
of  splendid  service.  Stricken  by  time,  their 
ruins  affect  our  imagination  like  the  columns  of! 
Karnak.  Dying  at  the  heart,  these  worn-out 
religions  still  make  more  converts  than  Chris- 
tianity. No  reverent  Christian  will  allow  him- 
self to  despise  the  religions  of  the  past ;  no 
intelligent  Christian  doubts  that  his  will  be  the 
religion  of  the  future.  A  child  of  the  East, 
the  religion  of  Jesus  has  conquered  the  West  ; 
conceived,  as  appears,  by  a  Galilean  peasant,  it 
has  no  limitations  of  thought  or  custom  ;  with 
only  a  minority  of  the  Race,  it  embraces  the 
dominant  nations  of  the  world.  The  mind  of 
Jesus  seems  nothing  more  in  the  world  as  yet 
than  a  grey  dawn  ;  but  wise  men  can  see  it  is 
the  rising  sun.  £^xw^-v_~c_^_ 

The  final  test  of  any  religion  is  its  inherent 
spiritual  dynamic :  the  force  of  Christianity  is 
the  pledge  of  its  success.  It  is  not  a  school  of 
morals,  nor  a  system  of  speculation,  it  is  an  en- 
thusiasm. This  religion  is  Spring  in  the  spirit- 
ual world,  with  the  irresistible  charm  of  the 
quickening  wind  and  the  bursting  bud.  It  is  a 


i So      THE    MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

birth,  as  Jesus  would  say,  a  breath  of  God  that 
makes  all  things  new.  Humanity  does  not 
need  morals,  it  needs  motives:  it  is_,sick  of 
speculation,  it  longs  for  action.  Men  see  their 
duty  in  every  land  and  age  with  exasperating 
clearness.  We  know  not  how  to  do  it. 

'  Whom  do  you  count  the  worst  man  upon  earth, 
Be  sure  he  knows,  in  his  conscience,  more 
Of  what  right  is  than  arrives  at  birth 
In  the  best  man's  acts  that  we  bow  before.' 

No  one  condemns  the  good,  he  leaves  it  un- 
done. No  one  approves  the  evil,  he  simply 
does  it.  Our  moral  machinery  is  complete  but 
motionless.  The  religion  which  inspires  men 
with  a  genuine  passion  for  holiness  and  a  con- 
straining motive  of  service  will  last.  It  has 
solved  the  problem  of  spiritual  motion. 

Jesus  did  not  create  goodness — her  fair  form 
had  been  already  carved  in  white  marble  by 
austere  hands  ;  His  office  was  to  place  a  soul 
within  the  ribs  of  death  till  the  cold  stone 
changed  into  a  living  body.  Before  Jesus,  good- 
ness was  sterile,  since  Jesus,  goodness  has  blos- 
somed ;  He  fertilised  it  with  His  spirit.  It 
was  a  theory,  it  became  a  force.  He  took  the 
corn,  which  had  been  long  stored  in  the 


THE    DYNAMIC    OF   RELIGION     181 

granaries  of  philosophy,  and  sowed  it  in  the 
soft  spring  earth  ;  He  minted  the  gold  and 
made  it  current  coin.  Christianity  is  in  Re- 
ligion what  steam  is  in  mechanics,  the  power 
which  drives.  Jesus  wrote  nothing,  He  said 
little,  but  He  did  what  He  said  and  made 
others  do  as  He  commanded.  His  religion 
began  at  once  to  exist ;  from  the  beginning  it 
was  a  life.  It  is  the  distinction  of  Christianity 
that  it  goes.  This  is  why  some  of  us,  in  spite  of 
every  intellectual  difficulty,  must  believe  Jesus 
to  be  the  Son  of  God — He  has  done  what  no 
other  ever  did,  and  what  only  God  could  do. 
He  is  God  because  He  discharges  a  '  God- 
function.' 

'  "Tis  one  thing  to  know  and  another  to  practise, 
And  thence  I  conclude  that  the  real  God-function 
Is  to  furnish  a  motive  and  injunction, 
For  practising  what  we  know  already.' 

Religion  with  Jesus  has  a  dynamic,  and  it  is 
Jesus  Himself,  for  Jesus  and  His  religion  are  as 
soul  and  body.  He  did  not  evolve  it  as  an  in- 
tellectual conception,  He  exhibited  it  as  a  state 
of  life.  It  was  never  a  paper  scheme  like  Plato's 
Republic  or  More's  Utopia.  Jesus'  religion  was 
in  life  before  it  appeared  in  the  Gospels ;  it  had 


i82       THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

been  fulfilled  in  Himself  before  it  was  preached 
to  the  world.  The  Gospels  are  not  only  a  pro- 
gramme, they  are  already  a  history.  Chris- 
tianity has  been  apt  to  sink  into  a  creed  or  a 
ceremony — it  is  the  decadence  of  Pharisaism — • 
in  Jesus'  hand  it  was  a  life.  Jesus  never  pro- 
posed that  men  should  discuss  His  Gospel,  He 
invited  men  to  live  it.  '  Whosoever  cometh  to 
Me,  and  heareth  My  sayings  and  doeth  them 
...  is  like  a  man  which  built  an  house  ...  on 
a  rock.'  He  did  not  suggest  lines  of  action, 
He  commanded  His  disciples  to  do  as  He  did. 
'  Jesus  .  .  .  saw  a  man  named  Matthew  sitting 
at  the  receipt  of  custom,  and  He  saith  unto 
him,  Follow  Me.'  He  did  not  dismiss  His  fol- 
lowers as  pupils  to  a  task,  He  declared  that 
they  would  have  a  common  life  with  Him. 
'  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  I  am  the  door 
of  the  sheep  ...  by  Me,  if  any  man  enter  in, 
He  shall  be  saved,  and  shall  go  in  and  out  and 
find  pasture.'  Jesus  combines  every  side  of 
religion  in  Himself,  and  is  the  sum  of  His 
Gospel.  '  I  am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the 
life.' 

Jesus  made  a  claim  that  separates  Him  from 
every  other  teacher — a   claim  of   solitary  and 


THE    DYNAMIC    OF  RELIGION      icS3 

absolute  infallibility.  The  attitude  of  other 
masters  has  been  modest  and  qualified.  '  This, 
I  think,  is  true,  but  you  must  not  believe  it  as 
my  word  ;  this,  I  think,  is  right,  but  you  must 
not  do  it  after  my  example.  Examine  and 
decide  for  yourselves.  I  am,  like  yourselves,  a 
seeker  and  a  sinner.'  Their  disciples  accepted 
this  situation,  and  so  Simmias  said  to  Socrates, 
'  We  must  learn,  or  we  must  discover  for  our- 
selves, the  truth  of  these  matters;  or  if  that 
be  impossible,  we  must  take  the  best  and  most 
impregnable  of  human  doctrines,  and,  embark- 
ing on  that  as  on  a  raft,  risk  the  voyage  of  life, 
unless  a  stronger  vessel,  some  divine  word, 
could  be  found  on  which  we  might  take  our 
journey  more  safely  and  more  securely.  .  .  . 
Cebes  and  I  have  been  considering  your  argu- 
ment, and  we  think  that  it  is  barely  sufficient.' 

'  I    daresay  you  are  right,  my   friend,'    said 
Socrates  in  the  PJiaedo. 

Jesus  did  not  affect  such  humility,  nor  make  N 
such  admissions.  He  did  not  obliterate  or 
minimise  Himself ;  He  emphasised  and  as- 
serted Himself.  '  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath 
been  said  by  them  of  old  time,'  opens  one 
paragraph  after  another  of  Jesus'  great  sermon, 


1 84      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

and  then  follows,  '  But  I  say  unto  you.'  Jesus 
brushes  aside  the  ancients  as  if  they  had 
never  been.  His  disciples  were  not  to  own  any 
authority  beside  Him  ;  He  was  to  be  absolute, 
with  Apostles  and  Prophets  only  His  witnesses 
and  interpreters,  never  His  equals.  '  Be  not  ye 
called  Rabbi,  for  One  is  your  master,  even 
Christ,  and  all  ye  are  brethren.'  His  words  are 
ushered  in  with  the  solemn  formula,  '  Verily, 
verily '  ;  they  fall  on  the  inner  ear  like  the 
stroke  of  a  bell ;  they  are  independent  of  argu- 
ment. It  is  ever  '  I,'  and  one's  soul  answers 
with  reverence.  For  his  'I'  that  sounds  from 
every  sentence  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  not 
egotism  ;  it  is  Deity. 

Jesus  makes  the  most  unqualified  demand  on 
the  loyalty  of  His  disciples,  and  believes,  that 
the  attraction  of  His  Person  will  sustain  their 
obedience.  The  beginning  of  the  religious  life 
was  no  reception  of  dogma  or  dream  of  mysti- 
cism ;  it  was  to  break  up  a  man's  former  envi- 
ronment, and  to  follow  the  lead  of  Christ. 
'  Believe  in  Me,'  and  '  Come  to  Me,'  He  was 
ever  saying,  as  if  it  were  natural  to  trust  Him, 
impossible  to  resist  Him.  The  hardness  of 
religion  had  its  compensations :  it  carried  as- 


THE   DYNAMIC   OF   RELIGION      185 

sq£iation  with  Jesus.  '  Whosoever  will  come 
after  Me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his 
cross  and  follow  Me.'  The  immense  sacrifices 
of  religion  would  be  an  office  of  love.  '  There 
is  no  man  that  hath  left  house,  or  brethren,  or 
sisters,  or  father,  or  mother,  or  wife,  or  children, 
or  lands,  for  my  sake.'  .  .  .  Religious  cow- 
ardice was  a  synonym  for  treachery  to  Christ ; 
it  was  a  breach  of  friendship  that  could  not  be 
healed.  '  Whosoever  shall  be  ashamed  of  Me 
and  of  My  words,  of  him  shall  the  Son  of  Man 
be  ashamed  when  He  shall  come  in  His  own 
glory,  and  in  His  Father's,  and  of  the  holy 
angels.'  The  slightest  kindness  was  exalted 
into  an  act  of  merit,  because  it  was  inspired  by 
devotion  to  Christ.  '  For  whosoever  shall  give 
you  a  cup  of  water  to  drink  in  My  name,  be- 
cause ye  belong  to  Christ,  verily  I  say  unto 
you,  he  shall  not  lose  his  reward.'  When  Jesus 
came  from  the  Father,  the  religious  instincts 
were  withering  in  the  dust,  and  vainly  feeling 
for  something  on  which  they  could  climb  to 
God ;  Jesus  presented  Himself,  and  gathered 
the  tendrils  of  the  soul  round  His  Person.  He  / 
found  religion  a  rite ;  He  left  it  a  passion. 
Perhaps  the  most  brilliant  inspiration  of 


186       THE    MIND    OF    THE    MASTER 

Jesus  was  to  fling  Himself  on  the  earliest, 
latest,  strongest  passion  of  our  nature,  and 
utilise  it  as  the  driving  force  of  His  religion. 
All  our  life  from  infancy  to  age  we  are  in  the 
school  of  love,  and  never  does  human  nature 
so  completely  shed  the  slough  of  selfishness, 
or  wear  so  generous  a  guise,  or  offer  such  un- 
grudging service  as  when  under  this  sway. 
Here  is  stored  to  hand  the  latent  dynamic  for  a 
spiritual  enterprise  ;  it  only  remains  to  make 
the  connection.  Do  you  wish  a  cause  to  en- 
dure hardness,  to  rejoice  in  sacrifice,  to  accom- 
plish mighty  works,  to  retain  for  ever  the  dew 
of  its  youth  ?  Give  it  the  best  chance,  the 
sanction  of  Love.  Do  not  state  it  in  books; 
do  not  defend  it  with  argument.  These  are 
aids  of  the  second  order ;  if  they  succeed,  it  is 
a  barren  victory — the  reason  only  has  been 
won  ;  if  they  fail,  it  is  a  hopeless  defeat — the 
reason  has  now  been  exasperated.  Identify 
your  cause  with  a  person.  Even  a  bad  cause 
will  succeed  for  a  space,  associated  with  an 
attractive  man.  The  later  Stewarts  were  hard 
kings  both  to  England  and  Scotland,  and  yet 
women  sent  their  husbands  and  sons  to  die 
for  '  Bonnie  Prince  Charlie,'  and  the  ashes  of 


THE    DYNAMIC    OF    RELIGION      187 

that  romantic  devotion  are  not  yet  cold. 
When  a  good  cause  finds  a  befitting  leader,  it 
will  be  victorious  before  set  of  sun.  David 
had  about  him  such  a  grace  of  beauty  and 
chivalry  that  his  officers  risked  their  lives 
to  bring  him  a  cup  of  water,  and  his  people 
carried  him  to  the  throne  of  Israel  on  the  love 
of  their  hearts.  Human  nature  has  two  domi- 
nant instincts — the  spring  of  all  action  as  well 
as  the  subject  of  all  literature — Faith  and 
Love.  The  religion  which  unites  them  will  be 
omnipotent. 

It  was  Jesus  who  summoned  Love  to  meet  \ 
the  severe  demands  of  Faith,  and  wedded  for 
the  first  time  the  ideas  of  Passion  and  Right- 
eousness. Hitherto  Righteousness  had  been 
spotless  and  admirable,  but  cold  as  ice  ;  Pas- 
sion had  been  sweet  and  strong,  but  unchast- 
ened  and  wanton.  Jesus  suddenly  identifies 
Righteousness  with  Himself,  and  has  brought 
it  to  pass  that  no  man  can  love  Him  without 
loving  Righteousness.  Jesus  clothes  Himself 
with  the  commandments,  and  each  is  trans- 
figured into  a  grace.  He  illustrates  His  Dec- 
alogue in  the  washing  of  feet,  and  compels 
His  disciples  to  follow  His  example.  '  If  I 


i88      THE  MIND    OF    THE    MASTER 

then,  your  Lord  and  Master,  have  washed  your 
feet,  ye  ought  also  to  wash  one  another's  feet.' 
By  one  felicitous  stroke  He  makes  Love  and 
Law  synonymous,  and  Duty,  which  had  always 
been  respectable,  now  becomes  lovely.  It  is  a 
person,  not  a  dogma,  which  invites  my  faith  ; 
a  person,  not  a  code,  which  asks  for  obedience. 
Jesus  stands  in  the  way  of  every  selfishness  ; 
He  leads  in  the  path  of  every  sacrifice ;  He  is 
crucified  in  every  act  of  sin  ;  He  is  glorified  in 
every  act  of  holiness.  St.  Stephen,  as  he  suf- 
fered for  the  Gospel,  saw  the  heavens  open  and 
Jesus  standing  to  receive  him.  St.  Peter  flee- 
ing in  a  second  panic  from  Rome,  meets  Jesus 
returning  to  be  crucified  in  his  placeX  Con- 
science and  heart  are  settled  on  Jesus,  and  one 
feels  within  his  soul  the  tides  of  His  virtue. 
It  is  not  the  doctrines  nor  the  ethics  of  Chris- 
tianity that  are  its  irresistible  attraction.  Its 
doctrines  have  often  been  a  stumbling-block, 
and  its  ethics  excel  only  in  degree.  The  life 
blood  of  Christianity  is  Christ.  As  Louis  said 
'L'etat  c'est  moi,'  so  may  Jesus  say  '  I  am  My 
Religion.'  What  Napoleon  was  to  his  soldiers 
on  the  battle-field,  Jesus  has  been  to  millions 
separated  from  Him  by  the  chasm  of  centuries. 


THE    DYNAMIC   OF   RELIGION      189 

No  emotion  in  human  experience  fyas  been  so  1 
masterful,  none  so  fruitful,  as   the  passion  for  \ 
Jesus.     It  has  inspired  the  Church,  it  has  half   1 
saved  the  world. 

Before  Jesus  could  utilise  this  love  He  had 
to  create  it,  and  this  was  not  accomplished 
cither  by  His  example  or  His  teaching.  The 
effect  of  His  awful  purity  was  terror:  '  Depart 
from  me,'  said  St.  Peter, '  for  I  am  a  sinful  man, 
O  Lord.'  The  result  of  three  years'  teaching 
was  perplexity :  an  average  apostle  asked  for  a 
theophany :  '  Show  us  the  Father,  and  it  suf- 
ficeth  us.'  Holiness  compels  awe,  wisdom  com- 
pels respect ;  they  do  not  allure.  Nothing  can 
create  Life  but  Life ;  nothing  can  beget  Love 
but  Love.  He  that  is  not  loved  hates;  he 
that  is  loved,  loves,  is  a  law  of  experience.  As 
the  earth  gives  out  the  heat  which  it  has  re- 
ceived from  the  sun,  so  the  devotion  of  Jesus' 
disciples  to  Him  in  all  ages  has  been  the  return 
of  His  immense  devotion  to  them.  He  lavish- 
ed on  His  first  disciples  a  wealth  of  love  in  His 
friendship ;  He  sealed  it  with  His  sacrifice  of 
Himself  upon  the  cross.  '  Greater  love  hath 
no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life 
for  his  friends.'  '  I  am  the  good  Shepherd : 


i9o      THE    MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

the  good  Shepherd  giveth  His  life  for  the  sheep.' 
Twelve  men  came  into  His  intimacy  ;  in  eleven 
he  kindled  a  fire  that  made  them  saints  and 
heroes,  and  the  traitor  broke  his  heart  through 
remorse,  so  he  also  must  have  loved.  But  Jesus 
expected  that  His  love  would  have  a  wider 
range  than  the  fellowship  of  Galilee,  and  that 
the  world  would  yield  to  its  spell.  It  was  not 
for  St.  John,  His  friend,  Jesus  laid  down  His 
life  ;  it  was  for  the  Race  into  which  He  had 
been  born  and  which  He  carried  in  His  heart. 
No  one  has  ever  made  such  a  sacrifice  for 
Humanity.  No  one  has  dared  to  ask  such  a 
recompense.  The  eternal  Son  of  God  gave 
Himself  without  reserve,  and  anticipated  that 
to  all  time  men  would  give  themselves  for  Him. 
He  proposed  to  inspire  His  Race  with  a  per- 
sonal devotion,  and  that  profound  devotion  was 
to  be  their  salvation.  '  Give  Me  a  cross  where- 
on to  die,'  said  Jesus,  '  and  I  will  make  thereof 
a  throne  from  which  to  rule  the  world.'  The 
idea  was  once  at  least  caught  most  perfectly  in 
an  early  Christian  gem,  where,  on  a  blood-red 
stone  the  living  Christ  is  carved  against  His 
cross  ;  a  Christ  with  the  insignia  of  His  imperial 
majesty.  Twice  was  Jesus'  imagination  power- 


THE   DYNAMIC   OF   RELIGION      191 

fully  affected — once  by  the  horrors  of  the  cross, 
when  He  prayed,  '  O  My  Father,  if  it  be  pos- 
sible, let  this  cup  pass  from  Me  '  ;  that  was 
the  travail  of  His  soul — once  by  the  magnetic 
attraction  of  the  cross,  when  He  cried,  '  And 
I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all 
men  unto  Me  '  ;  this  is  the  endless  reward  of 
His  travail. 

The  passion  for  Jesus  has  no  analogy  in  com- 
parative religion  ;  it  has  no  parallel  in  human 
experience.  It  is  a  flame  of  unique  purity  and 
intensity.  Thomas  does  not  believe  that  Jesus 
is  the  Son  of  God,  or  that,  more  than  any  other 
man,  He  can  escape  the  hatred  of  fanaticism  ; 
but  he  must  share  the  fate  of  Jesus.  '  Let  us 
also  go,'  said  this  morbid  sceptic,  '  that  we  may 
die  with  Him.'  At  the  sight  of  His  face  seven 
devils  went  out  of  Mary  Magdalene  ;  for  the 
blessing  of  His  visit,  a  chief  publican  gave  half 
his  goods  to  the  poor.  When  a  man  of  the 
highest  order  met  Jesus  he  was  lifted  into  the 
heavenly  places  and  became  a  Christed  man, 
whose  eyes  saw  with  the  vision  of  Christ,  whose 
pulse  beat  with  the  heart  of  Christ.  Browning 
has  nothing  finer  than  'A  Death  in  the  Desert,' 
wherein  he  imagines  the  love  of  St.  John  to 


192       THE    MIND   OF  THE   MASTER 

Jesus.  No  power  is  able  to  rouse  the  apostle 
from  his  last  sleep,  neither  words  nor  cordials. 
Then  one  has  a  sudden  inspiration  :  he  brings 
the  Gospel  and  reads  into  the  unconscious  ear, 

'  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life,' 
with  the  effect  of  an  instantaneous  charm. 

'  Whereat  he  opened  his  eyes  wide  at  once 
And  sat  up  of  himself  and  looked  at  us.' 

This  man  had  leant  so  long  on  Jesus'  bosom 
— some  seventy  years — that  at  the  very  sound 
of  His  words  the  soul  of  Jesus'  friend  came  up 
from  the  shadow  of  death.  It  is  the  response 
of  the  flower  of  the  Race  to  Jesus. 

This  passion  is  placed  beyond  comparison, 
because  it  is  independent  of  sight.  St.  Paul 
denied  the  faith  that  was  once  dear  to  him,  and 
flung  away  the  world  that  was  once  his  ambi- 
tion, to  welcome  innumerable  labours  and  ex- 
haust the  resources  of  martyrdom,  for  the  sake 
of  one  whom  he  had  never  seen,  save  in  mystical 
vision,  and  formerly  hated  to  the  shedding  of 
blood.  Men  were  lit  as  torches  in  Nero's  gar- 
den, and  women  flung  to  the  wild  beasts  of  the 
amphitheatre;  and  for  what?  For  a  system, 
for  a  cause,  for  a  Church?  They  had  not 


THE   DYNAMIC   OF   RELIGION      193 

enough  knowledge  of  theory  to  pass  a  Sunday- 
school  examination  ;  they  had  no  doctrine  of 
the  Holy  Trinity,  nor  of  the  Person  of  Jesus, 
nor  of  His  Sacrifice,  nor  of  Grace.  They  died 
in  their  simplicity  for  Him  '  Whom  having  not 
seen  ye  love,'  and  the  name  of  the  Crucified 
was  the  last  word  that  trembled  on  their  dying 
lips.  With  an  amazing  candour  Jesus  had 
warned  His  disciples :  '  Ye  shall  be  brought 
before  governors  and  kings  for  My  sake.  .  .  . 
And  ye  shall  be  hated  of  all  men  for  My  name's 
sake.'  With  a  magnificent  confidence  Jesus 
encouraged  His  disciples,  '  He  that  endureth  to 
the  end  shall  be  saved.  .  .  .  Whosoever 
therefore  shall  confess  Me  before  men,  him  will 
I  confess  also  before  My  Father  which  is  in 
Heaven.'  The  warning  and  the  promise  were 
both  fulfilled  in  the  history  of  the  disciples'  pas- 
sion. '  Christianus  sum,'  confesses  the  martyr, 
and  then  the  hoarse  refrain  '  Christianus  ad 
leonem.'  But  Perpetua  sees  a  '  great  ladder  of 
gold  reaching  from  earth  to  heaven,'  and  on  its 
highest  round  stands  the  Good  Shepherd  ;  while 
Saturus  is  brought  to  the  throne  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  and  '  gathered  to  His  embrace.'  '  Men,' 
says  Mr.  Lecky,  '  seemed  indeed  to  be  in  love 

N 


194     THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

/with  death.  Believing  they  were  the  wheat  of 
God,  they  panted  for  the  day  when  they  should 
be  ground  by  the  teeth  of  wild  beasts  into  the 
pure  bread  of  Christ.'  Love  of  life  and  love  of 
kin,  fear  of  pain  and  fear  of  death,  were  power- 
less before  this  talisman  '  For  My  sake.' 

This  sublime  passion  did  not  die  with  the 
sacrifice  of  the  martyrs,  a  mere  hysteric  of  Re- 
ligion, for  it  has  continued  unto  this  day  the 
hidden  spring  of  all  sacrifice  and  beauty  in  the 
Christian  life.  The  immense  superstitions  of 
the  Middle  Ages  were  redeemed  by  the  love 
of  Jesus,  radiant  in  the  life  of  St.  Francis, 
reflected  from  the  labours  of  the  '  Friends 
of  God.'  There  was  a  glory  over  all  the 
bitter  controversies  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
because  on  the  one  side  piety  desired  a  spiritual 
access  to  Jesus'  Person ;  and  on  the  other, 
piety  longed  for  the  comfort  of  His  Real 
Presence.  Both  the  excessive  ceremonialism 
and  the  vulgar  sensationalism,  which  are 
the  two  poles  of  modern  religion,  may  be 
pardoned,  because  the  High  Churchman  at  his 
altar  and  the  evangelist  at  the  street  corner  arc 
one  in  their  utter  devotion  to  Jesus.  Not  only 
has  the  best  theology  been  fed  by  this  spirit,  so 


THE  DYNAMIC  OF  RELIGION       195 

that  Bonaventura,  questioned  regarding  his 
learning,  pointed  to  the  cNjcifix;  and  the  living 
hymnology  been  its  incarnation,  so  that  to 
remove  the  name  of  Jesus  were  to  leave  no 
fragrance  ;  but  all  the  vast  and  varied  philan- 
thropy of  public  Christianity  and  the  sweet  and 
winsome  graces  of  private  life  have  been  the 
fruit  of  this  unworldly  emotion.  '  For  My  sake,' 
has  opened  a  new  spring  of  conduct,  from  which 
has  flowed  the  heroism  and  saintliness  of  nine- 
teen centuries.  When  Jesus  founded  His 
religion  on  personal  attachment,  it  seemed  a 
fond  imagination :  the  perennial  vitality  of 
Christianity  has  been  His  vindication. 

This  perpetual  passion  in  the  hearts  of  His 
disciples  implies  the  mystical  presence  of  Jesus, 
who  promised,  '  A  little  while  and  ye  shall  not 
see  Me,  and  again  a  little  while  and  ye  shall  see 
Me,  because  I  go  to  the  Father,'  and  '  Lo,  I  am 
with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.' 
The  presence  of  the  living  Christ,  the  object  of 
adoration  and  service,  has  been  wonderfully 
realised  by  the  mystics,  and  distinctly  held  forth 
in  the  sacraments,  but  it  is  apt  to  be  obscured 
in  the  consciousness  of  the  Church  by  two  differ- 
ent influences.  One  is  a  mechanical  theology 


196      THE    MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

which  builds  every  act  of  Christ  into  the  struc- 
ture of  a  system  till  no  virtue  comes  from  the 
flowing  garments  of  His  life,  because  they  are 
nothing  but  the  grave-clothes  of  a  dead  Lord. 
The  other  is  an  idealising  criticism,  which 
evaporates  the  Person  of  Christ  in  His  teaching, 
and  while  it  may  leave  us  a  master,  certainly 
denies  us  a  Lord.  This  were  to  cast  Religion 
back  on  its  former  condition  when  it  was  either 
an  invention  of  the  scribes  or  the  philosophers, 
and  to  barter  the  indescribable  charm  of  Chris- 
tianity to  secure  a  creed  or  to  disarm  unbelief. 
It  is  to  reduce  the  religion  of  Jesus  to  the 
impotence  of  Judaism  or  Confucianism :  it  is 
to  sell  Jesus  again  without  the  thirty  pieces 
of  silver. 

Jesus'  idea  lifts  Christianity  above  the  plane 
of  arid  discussion  and  places  it  in  the  region  of 
poetry,  where  the  emotions  have  full  play  and 
Faith  is  vision.  Theology  becomes  the  expla- 
nation of  the  fellowship  between  the  soul  and 
Jesus.  Regeneration  is  the  entrance  into  His 
life,  Justification  the  partaking  of  His  Cross, 
Sanctification  the  transformation  into  His  char- 
acter, Death  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  Heaven 
His  unveiled  Face.  Doctrines  will  be  but 


THE  DYNAMIC  OF  RELIGION       797 

moods  of  the  Christ-consciousness  ;  parables  of 
the  Christ-life.  Suffering  will  be  the  baptism  of 
Jesus  and  the  drinking  of  His  cup,  and  if  every 
saint  have  not  the  stigmata  on  his  hands  and 
feet,  he  will  at  least,  like  Simon  the  Cyrenian, 
have  the  mark  of  the  Cross  upon  his  shoulder. 
And  service  will  be  the  personal  tribute  to 
Jesus,  whom  we  shall  recognise  under  any  dis- 
guise, as  his  nurse  detected  Ulysses  by  his 
wounds,  and  whose  Body,  in  the  poor  and 
miserable,  will  ever  be  with  us  for  our  dis- 
discernment.  Jesus  is  the  leper  whom  the  saint 
kissed,  and  the  child  the  monk  carried  over  the 
stream,  and  the  sick  man  the  widow  nursed  into 
health,  after  the  legends  of  the  ages  of  faith. 
And  Jesus  will  say  at  the  close  of  the  day, 
'  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the 
least  of  these  my  brethren  ye  have  done  it 
unto  Me.' 

We  ought  to  discern  the  real  strength  of 
Christianity  and  revive  the  ancient  passion  for 
Jesus.  It  is  the  distinction  of  our  religion  :  it 
is  the  guarantee  of  its  triumph.  Faith  may 
languish ;  creeds  may  be  changed ;  churches 
may  be  dissolved  ;  society  may  be  shattered. 
But  one  cannot  imagine  the  time  when  Jesus 


198       THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

will  not  be  the  fair  image  of  perfection,  or  the 
circumstances  wherein  He  will  not  be  loved. 
He  can  never  be  superseded ;  he  can  never  be 
exceeded.  Religions  will  come  and  go,  the 
passing  shapes  of  an  eternal  instinct,  but  Jesus 
will  remain  the  standard  of  the  conscience  and 
the  satisfaction  of  the  heart,  Whom  all  men 
seek,  in  Whom  all  men  will  yet  meet. 


dAxC^^VV 


X 

JUDGMENT    ACCORDING   TO   TYPE 

Two  at  least  of  the  chief  convictions  which 
sustain  the  heart  of  Humanity  rest,  in  the  last 
issue,  on  a  basis  of  pure  reason.  One  is  the 
belief  that  the  soul  is  immortal ;  the  other  is 
the  belief  that  it  will  be  judged.  We  repudi- 
ate the  opposite,  because  the  annihilation  of 
the  spiritual  and  the  confusion  of  the  moral 
are  unthinkable.  '  For  my  own  part/  says  Mr. 
Fiske,  '  I  believe  in  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  not  in  the  sense  in  which  I  accept  the 
demonstrable  truths  of  science,  but  as  a  su- 
preme act  of  faith  in  the  reasonableness  of 
God's  work.'  It  is  incredible  that  when  the 
long  evolution  of  nature  has  come  to  a  head 
the  flower  should  be  flung  away.  This  were  to 
reduce  design  to  a  fiasco.  '  What  can  be  more 
in  the  essential  nature  of  things,'  writes  Mr. 
W.  R.  Greg,  in  his  Enigmas  of  Life,  a  very 


202      THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

honest  book,  '  than  that  the  mere  entrance  into 
the  spiritual  state  will  effect  a  severance  of 
souls  ? '  It  is  incredible  that  the  present  failure 
of  justice  should  end  in  no  redress,  and  the  im- 
mense wrongs  of  this  life  have  no  '  complement 
of  recompense.'  This  were  to  turn  order  to 
chaos,  and  put  us  all  to  '  permanent  intellec- 
tual confusion.'  Pessimistic  thinkers,  whose 
reason  has  been  deflected  by  the  presence  of 
an  arrogant  materialism,  and  moral  triflers, 
whose  conscience  is  satisfied  with  a  deity  of 
imbecile  good  nature — the  ban  Dieu  of  the 
French — may  deny  judgment ;  the  one,  be- 
cause there  is  no  soul,  the  other,  because  there 
is  no  judge.  But  the  masters  of  thought  in  all 
ages  and  of  all  nations  have  accepted  judgment 
as  an  axiom  in  the  calculation  of  human  life ; 
they  have  used  it  as  a  factor  in  the  creation  of 
human  history.  Reference  of  every  moral  ac- 
tion to  an  eternal  standard,  revisal  of  every  in- 
dividual life  by  a  supreme  authority,  are  em- 
bedded in  the  creeds  of  the  Race.  The  Book 
of  the  Dead  was  the  sacred  writing  of  the  old- 
est civilisation,  and  it  describes  how  the  soul  is 
weighed  in  the  intangible  scales  of  righteous- 
ness. The  Greek  moralists  conceived  the 


JUDGMENT   ACCORDING    TO   TYPE  203 

Furies  let  loose  on  the  guilty  soul,  and  placed 
their  abode  behind  the  judgment  seat  of  Areop- 
agus. The  '  Bible  of  the  Middle  Ages'  was  a 
rehearsal  of  judgment,  wherein  not  only  the 
saints  and  sinners  of  the  past,  but  those  of  that 
very  day,  received  their  due  recompense  of  re- 
ward. Angelico  wrought  out  his  Inferno  and 
Paradiso  in  a  picture  which  fails  somewhat  on 
the  left  hand,  where  sinners  are  tormented  by 
their  own  sins,  because  he  was  ignorant  of  sin, 
but  succeeds  gloriously  on  the  right,  where  the 
glorified  arrive  in  a  flower-garden — which  is  the 
outer  court  of  Heaven — for  he  only  of  men  had 
seen  the  angels.  When  the  ages  of  faith  had 
closed  and  every  conviction  of  the  past  was 
put  to  the  question,  one  belief  still  held  an  iron 
grip,  and  Michael  Angelo  painted  his  Judg- 
ment in  the  Pope's  Chapel  of  the  Vatican.  It 
is  a  picture  which  confuses  and  overwhelms 
one  ;  it  was  an  awful  agony  of  Art  •  but  it  was 
also  an  intense  reality  of  the  soul. 

We  have  a  robust  common  sense  of  morality 
which  refuses  to  believe  that  it  does  not  matter 
whether  a  man  has  lived  like  the  Apostle  Paul 
or  the  Emperor  Nero.  One  may  hesitate  to 
speculate  about  the  circumstances  of  the  other 


204      THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

world  ;  one  may  love  the  splendid  imagination 
of  the  Apocalypse  more  than  the  vulgar  real- 
ism of  modern  sentiment,  but  one  can  never 
crush  out  the  conviction  that  there  must  be 
one  place  for  St.  John,  who  was  Jesus'  friend, 
and  another  for  Judas  Iscariot,  who  was  His 
betrayer.  It  were  unreasonable  that  this  mad 
confusion  of  circumstances  should  continue, 
which  ties  up  the  saint  and  the  miscreant  to- 
gether to  the  misery  of  both  ;  it  were  supreme- 
ly reasonable  that  this  tangle  be  unravelled 
and  each  receive  his  satisfaction.  One  has 
seen  sheep  and  swine  feeding  in  the  same  field 
till  evening,  and  has  followed  till  the  sheep 
were  gathered  into  their  fold,  and  the  swine 
ran  greedily  to  their  stye.  The  last  complaint 
that  would  have  occurred  to  one's  mind  was 
that  their  owners  had  separated  them,  the  last 
suggestion  that  they  should  be  herded  to- 
gether. What  was  fitting  had  happened  ;  it 
was  separation  according  to  type. 

Jesus  did  not  supersede  this  conviction  as 
the  superstition  of  an  imperfect  morality,  nor 
condemn  it  as  a  contradiction  of  the  Divine 
Love.  His  '  enthusiasm  of  Humanity  '  did  not 
blind  Him  to  deep  lines  of  moral  demarcation  ; 


JUDGMENT   ACCORDING    TO   TYPE  205 

His  '  huge  tenderness '  did  not  propose  an 
equality  for  Judas  and  John.  He  did  not 
come  to  reduce  the  moral  order  to  an  anarchy 
of  grace,  and  to  break  the  inevitable  connec- 
tion between  sin  and  punishment.  It  has  been 
said  by  a  profound  thinker  that  Antinomian- 
ism  is  the  only  heresy,  and  it  is  desirable  to  re- 
mind one's  self,  in  a  day  of  flabby  sentiment, 
that  Jesus  was  not  an  Antinomian.  Had 
Jesus  condoned  sin,  then  He  had  been  the  de- 
stroyer of  our  Race,  and  not  its  Saviour,  for 
the  comforting  of  our  heart  had  been  a  poor 
recompense  for  the  debauchery  of  our  con- 
science. But  it  is  a  conspicuous  instance  of 
Jesus'  balance,  that  He  combined  the  most 
tender  compassion  for  the  sinner  with  the  most 
unflinching  condemnation  of  sin.  It  is  Jesus 
who  has  compared  sin  unto  Gehenna,  '  where 
their  worm  dieth  not  and  the  fire  is  not 
quenched'  ;  who  places  the  rich  man  of  soft 
and  luxurious  life  in  torment,  so  that  he  begs 
for  a  drop  of  water  to  cool  his  tongue ;  who 
casts  the  unprofitable  servant  into  outer  dark- 
ness, where  is  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth  ; 
who  declares  that  the  fruitless  branches  of  the 
vine  will  be  gathered  and  burned ;  who  sends 


2o6      THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

the  servants  of  self  into  the  fire  prepared  for 
the  Devil  and  his  angels.  Jesus  spake  in  para- 
bles, and  it  were  folly  to  press  His  words  into 
a  description  of  circumstances.  Jesus  spake 
also  with  marked  emphasis,  and  it  were  dishon- 
esty to  deny  that  He  believed  in  the  fact  of 
judgment. 

Jesus  went  with  the  general  reason  of  the 
Race  in  affirming  the  certainty  of  judgment, 
and  therein  He  is  at  one  with  the  Catholic 
creeds  of  Christendom.  Jesus  has  also  gone 
with  the  general  reason  in  affirming  the  morality 
of  judgment,  and  therein  He  has  differed  from 
that  solitary  creed  which  has  raised  uncharita- 
/  bleness  into  an  article  of  faith.  What  has  filled 
many  honourable  minds  with  resentment  and 
rebellion  is  not  the  fact  of  separation,  but  the 
principle  of  execution  ;  not  the  dislike  of  an 
assortment,  but  the  fear  that  it  will  not  be  into 
good  and  bad.  No  power  will  ever  convince  a 
reasonable  being  that  one  man  should  be 
elected  to  life  and  have  Heaven  settled  on  him 
as  an  entailed  estate,  and  another  be  ordained 
to  death  and  '  be  held  in  the  way  thereto'  ;  or 
that  one  be  '  blessed  '  because  he  has  held  the 
orthodox  creed,  and  another  be  '  cursed  '  be- 


JUDGMENT   ACCORDING   TO   TYPE  207 

x 

cause  he  has  made  a  mistake  in  the  most  pro- 
found of  all  sciences.  If  Heaven  and  Hell — 
be  they  places  or  states — are  made  to  hinge  on 
the  arbitrary  will  of  the  Almighty,  or  on  the 
imperfect  processes  of  human  reason,  then 
Judgment  will  not  be  a  fiasco,  it  will  be  an 
outrage.  It  will  be  a  climax  of  irresponsible 
despotism,  whose  monstrous  injustice  would 
leave  Heaven  without  blessing  and  Hell  with- 
out curse. 

Reason  cannot  agree  with  such  a  reading  of 
judgment  ;  reason  cannot  disagree  with  the 
reading  of  Jesus.  Jesus  never  made  judgment 
depend  either  on  the  will  of  God  or  the  belief 
of  man.  He  rested  judgment  on  the  firm  foun- 
dation of  what  each  man  is  in  the  sight  of  the 
Eternal.  He  anticipated  no  protest  in  his  par- 
ables against  the  justice  of  this  evidence  :  none 
has  ever  been  made  from  any  quarter.  The 
wheat  is  gathered  into  the  garner.  What  else 
could  one  do  with  wheat  ?  The  tares  are  burned 
in  the  fire.  What  else  could  one  do  with  tares? 
When  the  net  comes  to  the  shore,  the  good  fish 
are  gathered  into  vessels  ;  no  one  would  throw 
them  away.  The  bad  are  cast  aside ;  no  one 
would  leave  them  to  contaminate  the  good. 


2o8     THE    MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

The  supercilious  guests  who  did  not  value  the 
great  supper  were  left  severely  alone.  If  men 
do  not  care  for  Heaven,  they  will  not  be  forced 
into  it.  The  outcasts,  who  had  never  dared  to 
dream  of  such  a  supper,  were  compelled  to 
come.  If  men  hunger  for  the  best,  the  best 
shall  be  theirs.  The  virgins  who  had  taken  the 
trouble  of  bringing  oil  went  in  to  the  marriage  ; 
they  were  evidently  friends  of  the  bridegroom  : 
the  virgins  who  had  made  no  preparation  were 
shut  out  from  the  marriage  ;  they  were  mere 
strangers.  Had  the  foolish  virgins  been  re- 
jected because  they  were  a  few  minutes  late, 
they  would  have  had  just  cause  of  complaint. 
When  the  bridegroom  declined  their  company 
for  the  simple  reason  that  He  did  not  know 
them,  they  had  no  answer.  It  would  be 
equally  out  of  place  either  for  friends  to  be  re- 
fused, or  strangers  to  force  admission  to  a  mar- 
riage. It  is  all  fair  and  fitting — exactly  as 
things  ought  to  be  :  Jesus'  judgment  is  the  very 
apotheosis  of  reason. 

Twice  has  the  Judgment  been  described  with 
authority — once  by  the  greatest  prophet  that 
has  spoken  outside  the  Hebrew  succession, 
once  by  the  chief  prophet  of  Jew  and  Gentile. 


JUDGMENT  ACCORDING  TO   TYPE  209 

Plato  has  told  us  that  the  judges  of  the  great 
assizes  will  sit  at  a  place  on  the  other  side, 
where  all  roads  from  this  world  meet,  and 
where,  divided  by  the  throne  of  justice,  they 
part  again  into  two — the  way  which  leadeth  to 
the  Islands  of  the  Blessed,  and  the  way  that 
goeth  to  the  '  House  of  Vengeance  and  Punish- 
ment, which  is  called  Tartarus.'  Men  are  not 
to  appear  before  the  judges  in  the  body,  lest 
justice  should  be  partial,  since  there  are  many 
'  having  evil  souls  who  are  apparelled  in  fair 
bodies ' :  neither  are  the  judges  to  be  clothed, 
lest  their  bodies  be  '  interposed  as  a  veil  before 
their  own  souls.'  The  judgment  is  to  be  abso- 
lutely real ;  each  judge  '  with  his  naked  soul 
shall  pierce  into  the  other  naked  soul/  and  each 
soul  will  go  to  its  own  place.  Just  as  bodies 
have  a  shape  of  their  own,  so  is  it  with  souls. 
Some  are  scarred  by  crimes,  some  are  crooked 
with  falsehood,  some  deformed  by  inconti- 
nence ;  these  are  despatched  to  Tartarus. 
Other  souls  show  the  fair  proportions  of  holi- 
ness and  truth,  and  on  them  the  judges  look 
with  admiration  as  they  go  to  the  Islands  of  the 
Blessed.  Nothing  is  arbitrary  ;  everything  is 
reasonable.  It  is  registration  rather  than  ex- 
o 


2io      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

amination  ;  it    is    fulfilmentmrathar_than  judg- 
ment. 

The  Judgment  of  Plato  is  one  of  the  supreme 
efforts  of  human  reason,  surely  not  unillumi- 
nated  by  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  and  one  compares 
it  with  the  Judgment  of  Jesus  to  find  a  consid- 
erable difference  in  drapery,  and  an  exact  cor- 
respondence in  principle.  According  to  Jesus, 
there  will  be  a  Judgment  on  the  confines  of 
the  '  Unseen  Universe,'  and  each  soul  will  ap- 
pear before  Him  seated  on  the  Throne  of  His 
glory.  There  will  be  instant  division,  but  no 
confusion  :  it  will  be  manifestation  and  con- 
firmation. The  sheep  and  the  goats,  which 
have  been  one  flock  in  the  pastures  of  this  life, 
will  fall  apart,  each  breed  according  to  its 
nature.  Those  who  have  lived  the  selfless  life, 
who  saw  Him  an  hungered  and  gave  Him  meat, 
fulfilling  the  Law  of  Love,  shall  stand  on  one 
side,  because  by  their  choice  they  are  of  one 
kind ;  and  those  who  have  loved  the  self  life, 
who  saw  Him  a  stranger  and  took  Him  not  in, 
disobeying  the  Law  of  Love,  shall  stand  on  the 
other  side,  because  by  their  choice  they  are  of 
another  kind.  '  Come,  ye  blessed '  is  said  to 
the  selfless,  because  by  the  constitution  of  the 


JUDGMENT   ACCORDING   TO    TYPE  211 

moral  universe  they  cannot  be  anything  else 
than  blessed.  '  Depart,  ye  cursed '  is  said  to 
the  selfish  because  even  God  Himself  could  not 
prevent  them  being  cursed.  Their  state  in 
neither  case  is  '  prepared,'  but  is  the  inheritance 
of  character.  It  is  a  recognition  of  fitness,  as 
reasonable  as  an  arrangement  into  species,  as 
natural  as  the  ripening  of  harvest. 

Jesus  makes  a  marked  advance  on  Plato  by 
magnifying  the  function  of  the  Judge,  and  an- 
ticipating the  date  of  the  Judgment.  The 
Judge  in  St.  Matthew's  Gospel  is  not  an  official 
referring  to  a  Law  :  He  is  identical  with  the 
Law  itself.  Each  soul  is  tried  not  by  its  obedi- 
ence to  a  written  standard,  but  by  its  relation 
to  a  living  Person.  Jesus'  '  Come '  is  the  sym- 
bol of  a  Law,  the  Law  of  attraction.  His 
'  Depart  '  is  the  symbol  of  another  Law,  the 
Law  of  repulsion,  and  Jesus  Himself  is  in  both 
events  the  magnetic  force.  The  personal  fac- 
tor, which  is  the  heart  of  the  religion  of  Jesus, 
asserts  itself  in  the  Judgment.  Jesus  monopo- 
lises the  outlook  of  life  :  He  is  the  wounded 
Man  the  priest  passes,  whom  the  Samaritan 
helps.  His  acceptance  or  rejection  is  the  test 
of  the  soul,  and  the  crisis  simply  culminates  at 


2i2      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

the  Judgment.  Human  life  will  then  finally 
break  against  Jesus  as  a  rock  in  the  midst  of  a 
stream,  each  current  to  follow  its  own  direction 
unfettered  and  unmingled.  The  presence  of 
Jesus  is  our  Judgment. 

We  are  accustomed  to  refer  Judgment  to  the 
threshold  of  the  other  world.  We  ought  to 
acclimatise  the  idea  in  this  world,  for  if  Jesus 
once  enlarged  on  the  august  circumstances  of 
the  future  Judgment,  He  referred  continually 
to  the  awful  responsibility  of  a  present  Judg- 
ment. One  can  easily  understand  how  the 
revelation  of  Jesus'  moral  Glory  on  the  other 
side  will  raise  to  the  highest  power  both  His 
attraction  and  His  repulsion,  and  suddenly 
crystallise  into  permanence  the  fluid  principles 
of  a  man's  life.  The  stream  will  be  frozen  in 
the  fall.  But  this  will  only  be  the  consumma- 
tion of  a  process  which  is  now  in  action.  Je- 
sus has  not  to  wait  for  His  Throne  to  command 
attention  or  affect  the  soul.  He  is  the  most 
dominant  and  exacting  Personality  in  human 
experience,  from  whose  magical  circle  of  influ- 
ence none  can  tear  himself.  Can  any  one  follow 
Jesus'  life  from  Nazareth  to  Calvary,  and  stand 
face  to  face  with  Jesus'  Cross,  and  be  neither 


JUDGMENT   ACCORDING   TO   TYPE  213 

better  nor  worse?  Incredible  and  impossible. 
Certain  minds  may  hesitate  over  the  Nicene 
Creed,  but  it  is  trifling  to  treat  Jesus  as  a  name 
in  history,  or  a  character  in  a  book.  He  is  the 
Man  whom  Plato  once  imagined,  whom  Isaiah 
prophesied,  whom  the  most  spiritual  desire,  who 
exhausts  Grace  and  Truth.  Beyond  all  ques- 
tion, and  apart  from  all  theories,  Jesus  is  the 
Revelation  of  the  Divine  goodness :  the  incar- 
nate Law  of  God :  the  objective  conscience  of 
Humanity.  As  soon  as  we  enter  the  presence 
of  Jesus  we  lose  the  liberty  of  moral  indiffer- 
ence. One  Person  we  cannot  avoid — the  in- 
evitable Christ ;  one  dilemma  we  must  face, 
'  What  shall  I  do  with  Jesus  which  is  called 
Christ.'  The  spiritual  majesty  of  this  Man 
arraigns  us  at  His  bar  from  which  we  cannot 
depart  till  we  become  His  disciples  or  His 
critics,  His  friends  or  His  enemies.  With  cer- 
tain consequences.  Belief  in  Jesus  is  justifica- 
tion, for  it  is  loyalty  to  the  best ;  disbelief  in 
Jesus  is  condemnation,  it  is  enmity  to  the  best. 
Jesus  stated  the  position  in  a  classical  passage, 
'  He  that  believeth  on  Him  is  not  condemned  : 
but  he  that  believeth  not  is  condemned  already, 
because  he  hath  not  believed  in  the  name  of 


214 

the  only  begotten  Son  of  God.  And  this  is 
the  condemnation,  that  light  is  come  into  the 
world,  and  men  loved  darkness  rather  than 
light,  because  their  deeds  were  evil.' 

As  the  mere  presence  of  a  good  man  in  a 
room  will  compel  the  silent  opinion  of  every 
other  person,  and  be  their  judgment,  so  Jesus 
was  for  three  years,  from  His  public  appearance 
at  Nazareth  to  His  crucifixion  on  Calvary,  a 
criterion  of  character  and  a  factor  of  division. 
He  was  the  problem  burdening  every  man's 
intellect,  the  law  stimulating  every  man's  con- 
science, the  life  exciting  every  man's  imagina- 
tion, the  figure  by  which  all  kinds  of  men  ad- 
justed themselves.  According  to  the  Gospels, 
every  one  was  sensitive  to  Jesus.  As  soon  as 
He  was  born  wise  men  came  from  far  to  wor- 
ship Him,  and  Herod  sent  soldiers  to  slay  Him. 
When  He  was  presented  in  the  Temple,  Simeon 
took  the  infant  in  his  arms  and  spake  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  '  Behold,  this  child  is  set  for  the 
fall  and  rising  again  of  many  in  Israel.'  If  He 
preached  in  the  synagogue  of  His  boyhood,  the 
people,  under  the  irresistible  influence  of  Jesus' 
Personality,  '  wondered  at  the  gracious  words 
which  proceeded  out  of  His  mouth,'  so  strong 


JUDGMENT   ACCORDING   TO   TYPE  215 

was  His  power  of  attraction,  and  then  would 
have  '  cast  Him  down  headlong,'  so  great  was 
His  power  of  repulsion.  If  He  visited  a  coun- 
try town  in  Galilee,  a  Pharisee  would  invite 
Him  to  a  feast  in  order  to  insult  Him,  and  a 
publican  would  make  a  '  great  feast  in  his  own 
house/  in  order  to  honour  Him.  The  people 
were  divided  over  Jesus,  '  for  some  said,  He  is 
a  good  Man,'  others  said,  Nay,  but  He  de- 
ceiveth  the  people,  and  the  very  Council  was 
torn  with  controversy,  the  majority  sending 
officers  to  arrest  Him,  but  Nicodemus  breaking 
silence  in  His  defence.  If  two  men  disputed 
in  those  days,  it  was  about  Jesus ;  if  they 
talked  together  by  the  way,  it  was  of  Jesus  ; 
the  atmosphere  was  electrical  with  Jesus. 
'  Whom  do  men  say  that  I,  the  Son  of  Man, 
am?  '  asked  Jesus  of  His  disciples,  for  He  knew 
they  could  not  ignore  Him.  It  was  a  day  of 
judgment— searching  and  conclusive.  To  so 
many  Jesus  was  the  '  Son  of  the  living  God,' 
to  so  many,  '  a  man  gluttonous  and  a  wine- 
bibber,  a  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners.' 
was  either  the  Rock  on  which  wise  men  built, 
or  the  stone  which  would  grind  wicked  men  to 
powder.  Jesus  was  much  impressed  by  the 


216     THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

spectacle  of  this  unconscious  but  decisive  judg- 
ment. '  The  Father  judgeth  no  man,  but  hath 
committed  all  judgment  unto  the  Son.  .  .  . 
Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  the  hour  is  com- 
ing, and  now  is,  when  the  dead  shall  hear  the 
voice  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  they  that  hear 
shall  live.  .  .  .  And  (the  Father)  hath  given 
Him  authority  to  execute  judgment  also,  be- 
cause He  is  the  Son  of  Man.' 

Jesus  compared  Himself  to  the  Light  be- 
cause it  bringeth  to  the  birth  everything  that  is 
good  in  the  world,  and  as  Jesus  fulfilled  His 
course,  elect  souls  were  drawn  to  Him.  Simeon 
saw  Him  only  in  His  weakness,  and  was  ready 
to  '  depart  in  peace '  ;  John  Baptist  recognised 
Him  of  a  sudden,  and  laid  down  his  ministry 
at  Jesus'  feet ;  St.  John  spent  one  night  with 
Him,  and  followed  Him  unto  old  age ;  St. 
Matthew  heard  one  word  from  Him,  and  left 
all  he  had  ;  a  dying  robber  had  the  good  for- 
tune to  be  crucified  beside  Him;  and  acknowl- 
edged Him  King  of  Paradise.  There  was  a 
latent  affinity  between  these  men  and  Jesus. 
He  was  the  Good  Shepherd,  and  they  were 
'  His  own  sheep.'  '  He  calleth  His  own  sheep 
by  name  .  .  .  and  the  sheep  follow  Him.' 


JUDGMENT   ACCORDING   TO  TYPE  217 

Jesus  also  compared  Himself  to  Light  because 
it  layeth  bare  every  evil  thing,  and  the  light  of 
Jesus  raised  sin  to  its  height.  The  Sadducean 
priests  accomplished  His  crucifixion,  lest  He 
should  diminish  their  Temple  gains ;  the  Phari 
sees  hated  Him  to  death  because  He  had  ex- 
posed their  hypocrisy ;  the  foolish  people 
turned  against  Him  because  He  would  not  feed 
them  with  bread ;  Herod  Antipas  set  Him  at 
nought  because  Jesus  did  not  play  the  conjuror 
for  his  amusement ;  Pilate  sent  Jesus  to  the 
cross  in  order  to  save  his  office  ;  Judas  Iscariot 
betrayed  Him  because  he  could  now  make  no 
other  gain  of  Him.  There  was  a  latent  antipa- 
thy between  these  men  and  Jesus.  '  If  God 
were  your  Father/  Jesus  said  to  such  men  once, 
'  ye  would  love  Me  :  for  I  proceeded  forth 
and  came  from  God.  .  .  .  Ye  are  of  your 
father  the  devil,  and  the  lusts  of  your  father  ye 
will  do.' 

It  was  a  drama  of  judgments,  conducted  in 
the  face  of  the  world  for  three  years,  with  an 
evident  justification  and  an  evident  condemna- 
tion, but  the  former  did  not  of  necessity  imply 
a  visible  goodness,  nor  the  latter  a  visible 
badness  on  the  part  of  the  judged.  Those  who 


2i8      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

approximated  to  the  John  type  were  not  at  all 
saintly :  St.  Matthew  was  a  publican,  and  St. 
Mary  Magdalene  was  a  sinner.  There  was 
simply  one  point  in  their  favour,  they  hated 
their  evil  selves  and  welcomed  Jesus'  cross. 
Those  who  approximated  to  the  Judas  type  were 
not  all  evil  livers.  The  Pharisees  were  careful 
about  the  works  of  the  Law,  and  devoted  to 
the  cause  of  Judaism.  There  was  only  one 
point  against  them,  they  were  satisfied  with 
themselves,  and  were  determined  to  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  Jesus'  cross.  The  children  of 
Light  are  not  so  much  those  who  have  walked 
in  the  Light  as  those  who  love  the  Light.  The 
children  of  darkness  are  not  so  much  those  who 
walked  in  darkness  as  those  who  love  darkness. 

-«^ 

There  were  men  ready  for  Jesus  because  they 
had  '  an  honest  and  good  heart.'  There  were 
men  alien  to  Jesus  because  they  were  sensual 
and  hyprocrites.  It  is  a  question  not  so  much 
of  action  as  of  bias. 

Jesus  knew  that  it  was  not  possible  to  divide 
men  into  two  classes  by  the  foliage  of  the  outer 
life,  as  it  is  seen  from  the  highway.  Few  people 
are  saints  or  devils  in  their  daily  conduct :  most 
are  a  mixture  of  good  and  bad.  Below  the 


JUDGMENT  ACCORDING  TO  TYPE   219 

variety  of  action  lies  the  unity  of  principle. 
Some  people  have  grave  faults  and  yet  we 
believe  they  are  good ;  some  are  paragons  of 
respectability  and  yet  we  are  sure  they  are  bad, 
No  one  would  refuse  St.  Peter  a  place  with 
Jesus,  although  he  denied  Him  once  with 
curses  ;  none  propose  a  place  with  Jesus  for  Ju- 
das although  he  only  committed  himself  once  in 
public.  An  instinct  tells  us  the  direction  of  the 
soul ;  the  trend  of  character.  We  concur  with 
the  judgfnent  of  Jesus,  Who  said  of  Judas, 
'  One  of  you  is  a  devil ' ;  but  of  St.  Peter, 
'  Satan  hath  desired  to  have  you,  that  he  may 
sift  you  as  wheat,  but  I  have  prayed  for  thee.' 

When  Jesus  judges  by  type,  our  Christ 
approximation,  or  our  Christ  alienation,  one  is 
struck  by  His  absolute  fairness.  We  are  esti- 
mated not  by  what  we  have  done  but  by  what  we 
desire  to  be.  With  Jesus  the  purpose  of  the 
soul  is  as  the  soul's  achievement,  and  He  will 
not  be  disappointed.  If  one  surrender  himself 
to  Jesus,  and  is  crucified  on  His  cross,  there  is 
no  sin  he  will  not  overcome,  no  service  he  will 
not  render,  no  virtue  to  which  he  will  not  attain. 
He  has  made  a  good  beginning,  he  has  a  long 
time.  If  one  refuse  the  appeal  of  Jesus,  and 


220      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

cling  to  his  lower  self,  there  is  no  degradation 
to  which  he  may  not  descend.  He  has  made  a 
bad  beginning,  and  he  also  has  a  long  time. 
Both  have  eternity.  We  choose  our  type,  and 
with  God  it  is  fulfilled ;  so  that  St.  Mary 
Magdalene  in  her  penitence  was  saved,  and 
Simon  in  his  self-righteousness  lost  already. 

'  All  instincts  immature, 
All  purposes  unsure, 
That  weighed  not  as  his  work,  yet   swelled  the  man's 

account ; 

Thoughts  hardly  to  be  packed 
Into  a  narrow  act, 

Fancies  that  broke  through  language  and  escaped  ; 
All  I  could  never  be, 
All  men  ignored  in  me, 
This  I  was  worth  to  God  whose  wheel  the  pitcher  shaped.' 

Judgment  by  type  sets  the  future  in  a  new 
and  solemn  light.  We  can  no  longer  think  of 
Heaven  as  a  state  of  certain  happiness,  and 
Hell  as  a  state  of  certain  misery,  for  every  man, 
whatever  may  be  his  ideal.  They  are  now 
relative  terms,  so  that  one  man's  Heaven  might 
be  another  man's  Hell.  If  one  hunger  and 
thirst  for  God,  then  for  him  is  prepared  the 
beatific  vision  and  the  eternal  service.  He  has 
his  heaven,  and  is  satisfied.  If  one  seek  nothing 


JUDGMENT  ACCORDING  TO  TYPE  221 

beyond liimself  and  his  own  gratification,  ther 
he  will  be  left  to  himself,  and  taste  the  fulness' 
of  his  lusts.  He  has  his  hell  and  is  satisfied. 
St.  John  was  already  in  Heaven  with  his  head 
on  Jesus'  bosom.  Judas  was  in  Hell  as  he  went 
into  the  outer  darkness.  Each  was  at  home, 
the  one  with  Jesus,  the  other  away  from  Jesus. 
None  need  be  afraid  that  he  who  has  followed 
Jesus  will  miss  heaven,  or  that  he  who  has 
made  the  '  great  refusal '  will  be  thrust  into 
Heaven.  One  is  afraid  that  some  will  inherit 
Hell  and  be  content. 


OPTIMISM   THE    ATTITUDE    OF 
FAITH 


XI 
OPTIMISM  THE  ATTITUDE  OF  FAITH 

Professor  Orr  opens  his  admirable  Kerr  Lec- 
tures on  the  '  Christian  View  of  God  and  the 
World,'  with  an  exposition  of  the  German  idea, 
'  Weltansicht,'  and  pleads  with  much  force  for 
a  Christian  theory  of  the  world.  It  is  an  in- 
teresting coincidence  that  the  two  eminent  men 
who  delivered  the  last  Gifford  Lectures  have 
both  addressed  themselves  to  the  same  subject 
in  their  treatment  of  religion.  The  Master  of 
Balliol,  in  his  Evolution  of  Religion,  and  Professor 
Pfleiderer,  in  his  Philosophy  of  Religion,  have 
felt  it  necessary  to  embrace  '  Optimism  and 
Pessimism.'  It  is  a  sign  of  the  times  :  it  is  also 
a  reflection  on  the  past.  Philosophy  for  more 
than  a  century  has  realised  the  situation,  and 
has  faced  the  problem  of  the  Race  with  energy 
and  tenacity.  '  What  is  the  meaning  of  Life  ?  ' 
and  '  What  is  its  drift  ?  '  this  kind  of  question 
P 


226     THE    MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

lay  heavy  on  the  mind  of  thinkers,  and  they 
did  their  best  to  answer  it.  Unfortunately  the 
apparatus  at  their  command  was  defective,  for 
the  philosophers  were  not  able  to  avail  them- 
selves of  the  two  chief  factors  in  the  situation — 
the  revelation  of  the  Will  of  God  in  sacred  his- 
tory, and  the  Incarnation  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  They  worked  with  the  postulates  of 
reason  and  the  visible  facts  of  history.  Some- 
times they  came  to  a  conclusion  of  hope,  some- 
times of  despair  :  but  they  wrestled  to  the  end 
with  unshaken  courage.  Whether  philosophy 
has  failed  or  succeeded,  it  deserves  the  credit  of 
an  honourable  attempt.  Philosophy  was  not 
blind  to  the  world  out-look,  nor  indifferent  to 
the  world-sorrow. 

While  the  problem  has  taken  shape  within  a 
century,  it  has  existed  since  the  beginning  of 
ordered  thought,  and  the  pendulum  has  swung 
with  regular  beat  between  two  extremes.  The 
Homeric  age  with  its  frank  joy  in  nature — the 
brightness  of  the  sky  and  the  glory  of  a  man's 
strength — which  is  the  fresh  youth  of  the  world 
— was  followed  by  the  age  of  vEschylus  with  its 
sense  of  the  tragedy  of  life — its  shameful  falls,  its 
irresistible  hindrances,  its  inevitable  woes — 


OPTIMISM  THE  ATTITUDE  OF  FAITH  227 

which  is  the  haggard  manhood  of  the  world. 
The  splendid  idealism  of  the  greater  Hebrew 
prophets  who  saw  the  dawn  breaking  afar  on 
the  Person  of  the  Messiah  gave  way  to  the 
bitter  cynicism  of  the  author  of  Ecclesiastes. 
Judaism,  if  you  accept  the  Prophets  as  its  most 
characteristic  interpreters,  raised  optimism  to  a 
creed  and  embodied  it  as  a  people.  Buddhism, 
if  you  judge  it  by  the  example  of  its  illustrious 
founder,  disparaged  even  existence,  and  has 
clouded  the  horizon  of  the  East.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  last  century  Leibnitz  declared  this 
the  best  of  all  possible  worlds,  and  towards  its 
close  Rousseau  preached  a  state  of  nature  as 
Paradise,  but  after  this  century  had  been  born 
in  blood  and  fire,  Schopenhauer  considered  that 
life  was  less  than  gain,  and  Leopardi  hungered 
for  death.  In  our  own  day  we  have  heard 
Emerson  lift  up  his  voice  in  perpetual  sun- 
shine, and  have  gone  with  Carlyle  when  he 
walked  in  darkness  and  saw  no  light ;  and  if 
Pippa  sings, — 

'  God's  in  His  heaven, 
All's  right  with  the  world,' 

Thompson  has  written  the  '  City  of  Dreadful 


228      THE    MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

Night.'  It  is  a  long  action  and  reaction — an 
antithesis  that,  outside  Religion,  has  no  syn- 
thesis, and  one  is  driven  to  the  conclusion  that 
optimism  and  pessimism  are  only  half  truths. 
They  are  the  offspring  of  moods  of  thought, 
and  carried  to  an  extreme  include  their  own 
Nemesis.  The  shallow  optimism  of  Leibnitz 
was  the  preparation  for  Schopenhauer,  and  the 
morbid  pessimism  of  Hartmann  is  a  prophecy 
of  optimism. 

The  controversies  of  philosophy  have  often 
been  metaphysical — in  the  regions  beyond  life, 
but  no  one  can  deny  that  this  long  strife  has 
been  practical — in  the  midst  of  life's  hurly-burly. 
No  human  being  can  escape  it  unless  he  be  dead 
to  the  passion  of  Humanity,  or  unless  he  had 
never  realised  the  distinction  between  what  is 
and  what  ought  to  be — the  Real  and  the  Ideal. 
The  unspeakable  agony  of  human  life,  which 
has  been  a  long  Gethsemane,  and  the  unintel- 
ligible condition  of  the  lower  animals,  which  is 
a  very  carnival  of  slaughter,  beat  on  the  doors 
of  reason  and  heart.  It  is  not  wonderful  that 
some  have  tried  to  shelter  themselves  in  a  fool's 
Paradise  from  the  groans  they  could  not  still, 
or  that  others,  feeling  the  hideous  facts,  judged 


OPTIMISM  THE  ATTITUDE  OF  FAITH  229 

is  better  to  die  than  to  live, — that  some  have 
imagined  no  other  God  than  a  blind  and  cruel 
Necessity,  or  that  others  have  conceived  two 
contending  forces  of  good  and  evil.  Nothing 
is  wonderful  in  speculation  or  action  save  in- 
difference to  the  enigma  of  life. 

One  recognises  the  limitations  of  Philosophy, 
and  turns  with  expectation  to  Theology,  which 
is  fully  equipped  for  the  solution  of  this  prob- 
lem. Theology  is  the  science  of  religion, 
whose  work  it  is  to  collect  and  analyse  the  facts 
of  the  spiritual  consciousness,  and  it  is  rich  in 
treasures.  It  has,  for  instance,  a  doctrine  of 
God,  with  profound  conceptions  of  His  right- 
eousness and  love,  His  wisdom  and  power. 
Correlate  the  character  of  God  and  the  destiny 
of  the  Race.  Should  not  this  illuminate  the 
darkness  ?  Theology  has  a  doctrine  of  the  In- 
carnation, which  implies  the  union  of  humanity 
with  Himself  in  the  Eternal  Son  of  God.  Is 
this  high  alliance  to  have  no  influence  on  the 
future  of  the  Race?  Theology  has  also  a 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  asserts  the 
Presence  of  God  in  this  world  and  His  con- 
tinual operation.  Will  not  the  immanence  of 
God  carry  great  issues  ?  From  her  standpoint 


23o      THE   MIND    OF  THE   MASTER 

Theology  commands  the  situation  in  its  length 
and  breadth,  and  can  speak  with  a  solitary 
authority  on  the  mystery  of  life  and  the  goal 
of  the  Race.  It  suddenly  occurs  to  one  as 
amazing  that  Philosophy  should  undertake  a 
subject  for  which  Theology  alone  can  be 
adequate.  v/ 

It  is  much  more  amazing  to  discover  that  on 
this  burning  question  Theology  up  till  quite  a 
recent  date  has  been  silent,  and  still  delays  her 
deliverance.  Christian  Theology  has  nothing 
to  say  to  the  Race  ;  her  concern  has  been 
wholly  with  the  individual.  The  Race  has 
been  the  subject  of  a  huge  catastrophe,  and  is 
left  out  of  account.  It  is  on  the  individual 
Theology  expends  all  her  labour,  and  her  most 
elaborate  doctrines  are  the  explanation  how  he 
is  to  be  saved  from  the  genieral  wreckage.  Her 
outlook  for  him  is  an  unqualified  optimism  so 
far  as  he  is  separated  from  his  Race.  He  will 
be  sustained  and  trained  in  this  life  as  in  a 
penitentiary,  and  then  will  begin  to  live  in 
Heaven  —  his  real  home.  No  single  doctrine  of 
Theology,  with  the  doubtful  exception  of 
original  sin,  has,  till  recently,  been  applied  to 
the  Race.  The  realisation  of  the  Fatherhood, 


OPTIMISM  THE  ATTITUDE  OF  FAITH  231 

and  the  expansion  of  the  Incarnation,  are  of 
yesterday.  Theology  will  now  explore  the 
consequences  of  the  Incarnation,  and  tell  us 
soon  what  it  means  that  the  Son  of  God  is  also 
the  Son  of  Man.  Hitherto  pessimism  or 
optimism  lay  outside  Theology  because  the 
Race  had  been  abandoned. 

When  one  consults  the  supreme  Book  of 
Religion,  the  result  is  at  first  a  perplexity  and 
then  an  encouragement.  Any  one  might  take 
a  brief  for  the  pessimism  of  the  Bible,  and 
prove  his  case  to  the  hilt.  The  irresistible 
assaults  of  evil,  the  loathsome  taint  of  sin,  the 
inevitable  entail  of  punishment,  the  wrong  of 
the  innocent,  the  martyrdom  of  the  righteous, 
the  slavery  of  labour,  the  futility  of  life,  the 
moan  of  sorrow,  are  all  in  this  Book,  through 
which  the  current  of  human  life  rushes  to  the 
eternal  sea.  But  if  one  should  choose  to  take 
a  brief  for  the  optimism  of  the  Bible,  he  could 
as  easily  win  his  case.  The  beauty  of  peni- 
tence, the  passion  for  God,  the  struggle  after 
righteousness,  the  joy  of  forgiveness,  the  attain- 
ments in  character,  the  examples  of  patience, 
the  victory  over  this  world,  invest  human  life 
in  the  Bible  with  undying  beauty.  It  is  natural 


232      THE  MIND   OF    THE  MASTER 

that  both  pessimists  and  optimists  should  claim 
the  sanction  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures :  that 
any  intelligent  reader  might  lay  down  the  book 
with  the  vision  of  the  Race  carrying  its  bitter 
cross  along  the  Via  Dolorosa  or  crowned  with 
glory  in  the  heavenly  places.  It  seems  a  con- 
tradiction :  it  points  to  a  solution.  No  one 
would  dare  to  say  that  there  is  no  ground  for 
the  alternation  of  moods  of  hope  and  despair 
that  have  lifted  and  cast  down  the  seers  of  our 
Race.  Within  one  connected  and  consistent 
literature  both  moods  find  their  strongest  and 
sanest  utterance — a  pessimism  that,  even  in 
Ecclesiastes,  still  clings  to  God  and  morals,  an 
optimism  that  is  never  shallow  or  material. 
Within  the  same  book  we  look  for  the  recon- 
ciliation of  this  long  antinomy  and  the  revela- 
tion of  a  deeper  unity.  We  are  not  disap- 
pointed ;  it  is  found  in  Jesus. 

No  one  has  seriously  denied  that  Jesus  was 
an  optimist,  although  it  has  been  hinted  that 
He  was  a  dreamer,  and  no  one  can  object  to 
the  optimism  of  Jesus,  for  it  was  in  spite  of  cir- 
cumstances. He  was  born  of  a  peasant 
woman :  in  early  age  He  worked  for  His 
bread  :  as  a  Prophet  He  depended  on  alms ; 


OPTIMISM  THE  ATTITUDE  OF  FAITH  233 

during  the  great  three  years  He  knew  not 
where  to  lay  His  head.  But  the  bareness  and 
hardship  of  His  life  never  embittered  His  soul, 
neither  do  they  stiffen  Him  into  Stoicism.  A 
sweet  contentment  possesses  Him,  and  He 
lives  as  a  child  in  His  Father's  house.  This 
poorest  of  men  warns  His  disciples  against 
carking  care  and  vain  anxiety  ;  He  persuades 
them  to  a  simple  faith  in  the  Divine  Providence. 
They  are  to  '  take  no  thought  for  the  morrow, 
for  the  morrow  will  take  thought  for  the  things 
of  itself.'  '  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil 
thereof.'  They  are  to  '  behold  the  fowls  of 
the  air,'  and  to  '  take  no  thought  for  meat  or 
drink,'  to  '  consider  the  lilies  of  the  field/  and 
to  '  take  no  thought  for  raiment.'  Jesus  met 
the  grinding  poverty  of  a  Galilean  peasant's 
life  with  one  inexhaustible  consolation, — 
'  Your  Heavenly  Father  knoweth  that  ye  have 
need  of  all  these  things.' 

The  severity  of  Jesus'  circumstances  was 
added  to  their  poverty,  since  this  Man,  who 
lived  only  for  others,  was  the  victim  of  the  most 
varied  injury.  He  was  exiled  as  soon  as  He 
was  born  ;  His  townsmen  would  have  killed  Him  ; 
His  brethren  counted  Him  mad  ;  the  city  of  His 


234      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

mighty  works  did  not  believe ;  the  multitudes 
He  had  helped  forsook  Him  ;  the  professional 
representatives  of  religion  set  themselves  against 
Jesus,  and  pursued  this  holiest  of  men  with  in- 
genious slanders  ;  He  was  a  '  Samaritan'  (or 
heretic),  and  '  had  a  devil '  ;  He  was  a  '  glutton- 
ous man  and  a  winebibber,'  and  kept  disreputa- 
ble company  ;  He  was  a  blasphemer  and  de- 
ceiver. A  huge  conspiracy  encompassed  Him, 
and  laboured  for  His  death  ;  one  of  His  inti- 
mates betrayed  Him  ;  the  priests  of  God  pro- 
duced false  witnesses  against  Him ;  the  people 
He  loved  clamoured  for  His  death  ;  the  Roman 
power  He  had  respected  denied  Him  justice  ; 
He  was  sent  to  the  vilest  death.  During  this 
long  ordeal  His  serenity  was  never  disturbed  ; 
lie  was  never  angry  save  with  sin.  He  never 
lost  control  of  Himself  or  became  the  slave  of 
circumstances.  His  bequest  to  the  disciples  was 
Peace,  and  He  spake  of  Joy  in  the  upper  room. 
He  was  so  lifted  above  the  turmoil  of  this  life, 
that  Pilate  was  amazed  ;  and,  amid  the  agony  of 
the  Cross,  He  prayed  for  His  enemies.  Nothing 
has  so  embittered  men  as  utter  poverty  or 
social  injustice.  Jesus  endured  both,  and 
maintained  the  radiant  brightness  of  His  soul. 


OPTIMISM  THE  ATTITUDE  OF  FAITH  235 

His  was  optimism  set  in  the  very  environment 
of  pessimism. 

Jesus  saw  the  Race  into  which  He  had  been 
born  in  the  light  that  illuminated  His  own  life, 
and  held  out  to  them  the  Hope  which  sustained 
His  own  soul.  Pagan  poets  had  placed  the  age 
of  gold  in  the  far  past ;  Hebrew  prophets  re- 
ferred it  to  the  distant  future.  Jesus  dared  to 
say  it  might  be  now  and  here.  It  was  the  glory 
of  Isaiah  to  imagine  a  Kingdom  of  Righteous- 
ness that  would  yet  be  established,  with  outward 
sanctions  of  authority,  on  earth.  It  was  the 
achievement  of  Jesus  to  set  up  the  Kingdom  of 
Righteousness  within  the  heart  with  the  eternal 
sanctions  of  Love.  He  was  the  first  to  insist 
that  the  one  bondage  a  man  need  fear  was  sin  ; 
that  no  man  need  be  the  slave  of  sin  unless  he 
willed ;  that  freedom  from  sin  was  perfect 
liberty,  and  that  any  man  could  enter  into 
Heaven  by  retiring  within  a  clean  and  loving  soul. 
The  highest  reaches  of  optimism  have  conceived 
a  state  of  physical  comfort  and  placed  it  far  away. 
Jesus  preached  a  Kingdom  of  Holiness,  and 
placed  it  in  the  soul.  He  had  the  faith  to  de- 
liver this  Gospel  where  the  Jewish  world  was  a 
hollow  unreality,  and  the  Pagan  world  one  cor- 


236      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

ruption.  It  was  the  very  extravagance  of  op- 
timism. 

The  attitude  of  Jesus  was  amazing  in  the 
wideness  of  His  vision,  in  the  assurance  of  His 
hope.  His  kingdom  might  be  as  a  grain  of 
mustard  seed :  in  its  branches  the  souls  of  men 
would  yet  take  refuge.  It  might  be  only  a 
morsel  of  leaven  hidden  in  the  mass  of  society : 
the  world  would  be  regenerated  by  its  influence. 
He  prepared  twelve  men  with  immense  care 
that  they  might  carry  His  kingdom  to  the  ends 
of  the  world.  Although  He  never  passed  beyond 
the  borders  of  Syria  in  His  mission,  He  grasped 
the  nations  in  His  faith,  and  saw  them  '  come 
from  the  east,  and  from  the  west,  and  from  the 
north,  and  from  the  south,'  and  'sit  down  in  the 
Kingdom  of  God.'  Before  His  betrayal  Jesus 
administered  a  sacrament  that  was  to  last  till  His 
second  coming.  After  He  rose  from  the  dead 
He  commanded  His  disciples  to  evangelise  the 
world.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that  all  men 
would  be  drawn  to  Him,  Who  was  a  synonym 
for  Righteousness,  Joy  and  Peace.  Jesus  hoped 
the  best,  not  for  the  individual  only,  but  also 
for  the  Race. 

The   grounds   for   Jesus'    sublime   optimism 


OPTIMISM  THE  ATTITUDE  OF  FAITH  237 

were  three,  and  the  first  was  the  will  of  God. 
With  the  extreme  left  of  pessimism  Jesus 
believed  that  there  was  a  Will  at  the  heart  of 
the  universe  working  slowly,  constantly,  and 
irresistibly.  But  it  is  not  blind,  immoral, 
impersonal — mere  Titanic  force.  It  is  the  ex- 
pression and  energy  of  Love.  This  Will  might 
appear  under  strange  phenomena,  might  impose 
great  sufferings,  might  have  immense  restraint, 
but  it  works  for  goodness.  It  might  send  Jesus 
to  the  Cross,  but  now  and  ever  it  was  a  sure 
and  gracious  Will.  The  future  lay  in  that  Will 
and  must  be  bright.  It  was  an  ancient  Father 
that  said,  '  God  works  all  things  up  into  what 
is  better ; '  and  a  modern  heretic  who  declared, 
1  God,  who  spent  ages  in  fitting  the  earth  for 
the  residence  of  man,  may  well  spend  ages 
more  in  fitting  rectified  man  to  inhabit  a 
renovated  earth.'  This  was  the  faith  and 
patience  of  Jesus. 

Jesus  also  believed  in  man,  and  therein  he 
differed  from  the  pessimists  of  His  own  day. 
The  Pharisees  regarded  the  mass  of  people  as 
moral  refuse,  the  unavoidable  waste  from  the 
finished  product  of  Pharisaism.  With  Jesus 
the  common  people  were  the  raw  material  for 


238        THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER 

the  Kingdom  of  God,  rich  in  the  possibilities  of 
sainthood.  When  Jesus  made  His  own  Apologia 
in  the  I5th  chapter  of  St.  Luke's  Gospel,  He 
also  offered  their  apology  for  the  people.  They 
were  not  callous  and  hopeless  sinners,  only 
sheep  that  have  wandered  from  the  fold,  and 
know  not  the  way  back ;  not  useless  and  worth- 
less human  stuff,  but  souls  that  carried  beneath 
the  rust  and  grime  the  stamp  of  their  birth, 
and  might  be  put  out  at  usury ;  not  outcasts 
whose  death  would  be  a  good  riddance,  but 
children  loved  and  missed  in  their  Father's 
House.  This  wreck,  Jesus  perpetually  insisted, 
is  not  the  man — only  his  lower  self,  ignorant, 
perverted,  corrupt ;  the  other  self  lies  hidden 
and  must  be  released.  That  is  the  real  self, 
and  when  it  is  released  you  come  to  the  man. 
'  When  he  came  to  himself,'  said  Jesus  of  the 
prodigal.  This  was  Jesus'  reading  of  publicans 
and  sinners, — the  pariahs  of  that  civilisation. 
He  moved  among  the  people  with  a  sanguine 
expectation ;  ever  demanding  achievements  of 
the  most  unlikely,  never  knowing  when  He 
might  not  be  gladdened  by  a  response.  An 
unwavering  and  unbounded  faith  in  humanity 
sustained  His  heart  and  transformed  its  subjects. 


OPTIMISM  THE  ATTITUDE  OF  FAITH   239 

Zacchaeus,  the  hated  tax-gatherer,  makes  a  vast 
surrender,  and  shows  also  that  he  is  a  son  of 
Abraham.  St.  Mary  Magdalene,  the  byword 
of  society,  has  in  her  the  passion  of  a  saint. 
St.  Matthew  abandons  a  custom-house  to  write 
a  Gospel.  St.  John  leaves  his  nets  to  become 
the  mystic  of  the  ages.  St.  Peter  flings  off  his 
weakness,  and  changes  into  the  rock  of  the 
Church.  With  everything  against  him,  Jesus 
treated  men  as  sons  of  God,  and  His  optimism 
has  had  its  vindication. 

Jesus'  attitude  of  hope  rested  also  on  His 
ideal  of  Life.  His  own  disciples  could  not 
enter  into  His  mind  or  see  with  His  eyes. 
Modern  reformers  have  sadly  missed  His  stand- 
point. Laden  with  reproach  and  injury,  He 
seemed  to  His  friends  the  victim  of  intolerable 
ill-usage.  As  the  Cross  loomed  in  sight  they 
besought  Him  to  save  Himself.  They  pitied 
Him  who  did  not  pity  Himself;  they  were 
furious  for  Him  who  was  Himself  satisfied. 
For  life  with  Jesus  was  not  meat  and  drink,  nor 
ease  and  honour.  It  was  the  perfection  of  the 
soul,  and  the  way  unto  this  high  goal  was  the 
Cross.  If  suffering  was  the  will  of  God,  then  it 
is  a  good  in  disguise;  if  it  be  the  discipline  of 


24o        THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER 

holiness,  it  is  to  be  welcomed.  The  Son  of  Man 
must  be  crucified  before  He  can  rise  in  power. 
He  must  fall  as  a  corn  of  wheat  into  the  ground 
before  He  can  bring  forth  much  fruit.  This 
was  the  order  of  things  for  Him  and  for  all 
men,  and  out  of  the  baptism  of  fire  men  will 
come  clean  souls.  Jesus  did  not  ignore  the 
black  shadow  of  sin  ;  He  did  not  fall  into  the 
sickly  optimism  of  last  century.  Jesus  did  not 
regard  man  as  the  sport  of  a  cruel  Fate  ;  He 
did  not  yield  to  the  gloomy  pessimism  which  is 
settling  down  on  this  dying  century.  He 
illuminated  the  darkness  of  human  misery  with 
the  light  of  a  Divine  purpose,  and  made  the 
evidence  for  despair  an  argument  for  hope. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  Jesus  had  moods, 
and  in  one  of  them  He  sometimes  lost  heart. 
One  cannot  forget  the  gloom  of  certain 
parables  : — the  doom  of  the  fruitless  tree  ;  the 
execution  of  the  wicked  husbandman ;  the 
casting  out  of  the  unprofitable  servant  ;  the 
judgment  on  the  uncharitable.  He  once 
doubted  whether  there  would  be  faith  at  His 
coming ;  He  prophesied  woe  to  Capernaum ; 
He  wept  over  Jerusalem  ;  He  poured  out  His 
wrath  on  the  Pharisees.  But  it  was  not  about 


OPTIMISM  THE  ATTITUDE  OF  FAITH    241 

the  world — the  Samaritan  woman,  the  mother 
from  Tyre,  the  Roman  centurion — His  faith 
failed.  It  was  about  the  Church — the  Priests, 
the  Scribes,  the  Pharisees,  the  Rulers.  It 
remains  for  ever  a  solemn  warning  that  while 
the  Church  is  continually  tempted  to  lose  hope 
of  the  world,  the  one  section  of  humanity  of 
which  Jesus  despaired  was  the  Church. 

When  one  turns  for  facts  to  verify  Jesus'  op- 
timism, the  handiest,  although  not  the  most 
conclusive,  is  the  growth  of  the  Christian 
Church.  The  Church  is  to  the  kingdom  what 
the  electric  current  is  to  electricity.  It  is  the 
kingdom  organised  for  worship  and  aggres- 
sion ;  it  is  the  kingdom  coming  to  a  point  and 
reduced  to  machinery.  You  could  have  the 
kingdom  without  the  Church,  and  that  day 
may  come  ;  you  could  have  no  Church  without 
the  kingdom.  The  Church  is  a  rough  index  of 
the  spread  and  vitality  of  the  kingdom,  and 
no  one  can  deny  that  the  history  of  the  Church 
has  been  the  outstanding  phenomenon  of 
modern  times.  It  began  with  a  handful  of 
Jewish  peasants,  cast  out  by  their  own  nation, 
and  it  embarked  on  a  march  of  unparalleled 
conquest.  From  Jerusalem  to  Antioch,  from 
Q 


242       THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

Antioch  to  Asia,  from  Asia  to  Rome,  this  new 
unworldly  faith  made  its  victorious  way,  and 
from  Rome  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  There  is 
almost  no  land  now  where  the  Church  has  not 
sent  her  missionaries,  has  not  planted  her 
standard,  has  not  enrolled  her  converts  ;  and  if 
there  be  such,  it  is  watched  with  greedy  eyes. 
Her  weakness,  her  failings,  her  blunders,  her 
sins,  have  been  patent  to  all,  but  they  have 
only  served  to  prove  how  prolific  were  the 
sources  that  recruited  her  shattered  ranks,  how 
constant  the  force  that  made  itself  felt  through 
so  imperfect  an  instrument.  There  are  great 
religions  on  the  earth  besides  the  Church,  but 
they  have  seen  their  best  days,  and  have  begun 
to  decay.  The  faith  of  Jesus  is  moving  to  its 
zenith.  There  are  strong  empires  to-day  divid- 
ing the  world  between  them,  but  none  will 
venture  to  say  that  one  of  them  is  so  likely  to 
live  as  the  Church  Catholic.  Her  increase  may 
be  by  thousands  or  millions,  but  it  is  evident 
she  has  no  serious  rival  to  dispute  her  final 
triumph,  no  hopeless  hindrance  save  her  own 
coldness. 

But  no  one  can  have  understood  Jesus,  who 
concludes  that  the  Church  embraces  the  king- 


OPTIMISM  THE  ATTITUDE  OF  FAITH  243 

dom  of  God.  Are  there  not  many  persons  who 
have  no  formal  connection  with  the  Church, 
and  yet  are  keeping  the  commandments  of 
Jesus,  and  have  the  likeness  of  His  character  ?- 
They  have  not  been  baptized  in  His  Name, 
but  they  follow  in  His  steps;  they  do  not 
show  forth  His  Name,  but  they  die  daily  in  His 
service.  They  have  been  born  into  a  Christian 
atmosphere  ;  they  have  inherited  the  Christian 
nature ;  they  have  responded  to  the  Christian 
spirit.  What  is  one  to  say  about  these  Samari- 
tans ?  They  do  not  answer  to  their  names  at 
the  temple  with  the  Priests  and  Levites,  and 
therein  they  may  have  suffered  loss ;  but  they 
show  well  on  the  roadside  where  the  sick  man 
is  lying.  What  did  Jesus  mean  by  His  marked 
approbation  of  the  Samaritans?  It  was  not 
that  He  thought  them  right  in  their  separation 
from  the  Jewish  Church,  and  He  spoke  plainly 
on  that  matter  to  the  Samaritan  woman.  It 
was  to  show  that  life  was  deeper  than  forms, 
and  that  incorrect  doctrine  may  be  consistent 
with  the  noblest  character. 

The  kingdom  Jesus  imagined  is  wider  even 
than  the  sphere  of  Christendom,  and  extends 
where  men  have  owed  nothing  to  the  subtle 


244     THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

strain  of  Christian  heredity.  In  that  great 
Mogul  Emperor  Akbar,  who  in  the  sixteenth 
century  had  discovered  the  principle  of  relig- 
ious toleration  :  those  Moslem  saints  whose  fine 
charity  is  embodied  in  the  legend  of  Abou-ben- 
Adhem :  in  the  renunciation  of  Buddha,  the 
light  of  Asia  :  that  Roman  Emperor,  whom 
the  young  men  called  '  Marcus  my  father/  the 
old  men  '  Marcus  my  son,'  the  men  of  middle 
age  '  Marcus  my  brother/  —  in  such  lives  one 
recognises  the  distinctive  qualities  of  the  king- 
dom. It  is  surely  a  narrow  mind,  and  worse — 
a  narrow  heart — that  would  belittle  the  noble 
sayings  that  fell  from  the  lips  of  outside  saints 
or  discredit  the  virtues  of  their  character.  Is 
it  not  more  respectful  to  God,  the  Father  of 
mankind,  and  more  in  keeping  with  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Son  of  Man,  to  believe  that  every- 
where and  in  all  ages  can  be  found  not  only 
the  prophecies  and  broken  gleams,  but  also  the 
very  children  of  the  kingdom  ?  In  Clement's 
noble  words,  '  Some  with  the  consciousness 
of  what  Jesus  is  to  them,  others  not  as  yet ; 
some  as  friends,  others  as  faithful  servants, 
others  barely  as  servants.' 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  the  measure  of 


OPTIMISM  THE  ATTITUDE  OF  FAITH  245 

/ 
Jesus'  optimism,  and  its  gradual  fulfilment  His 

justification.     His  ideas  have  matured  in  the  ' 
human    consciousness,    and  are  now    bursting! 
into  flower  before  our  eyes.      Thoughtful   men 
of  many  schools  are  giving  their  mind  to  the 
programme    of   Jesus,   and   asking   whether  it 
ought  not  to  be  attempted.     The  ideal  of  Life, 
one  dares  now  to  hope,  is  to  be  realised  within 
measurable    distance,  and  the  dreams    of   the 
Galilean  Prophet  become  history. 

When  the  kingdom  comes  in  its  greatness,  it 
will  fulfil  every  religion  and  destroy  none,  clear- 
ing away  the  imperfect  and  opening  up  reaches 
of  goodness  not  yet  imagined,  till  it  has  gath- 
ered into  its  bosom  whatsoever  things  are  true 
and  honest  and  just  and  pure  and  lovely.  It 
standeth  on  the  earth  as  the  city  of  God  with 
its  gates  open  by  night  and  by  day,  into  which 
entereth  nothing  that  defileth,  but  into  which 
is  brought  the  glory  and  power  of  the  nations. 
It  is  the  natural  home  of  the  good  ;  as  Zwin- 
gli,  the  Swiss  reformer,  said  in  his  dying  con- 
fession, '  Not  one  good  man,  one  holy  spirit, 
one  faithful  soul,  whom  you  will  not  then  be- 

,JT 


FATHERHOOD   THE   FINAL 
IDEA   OF   GOD 


XII 

FATHERHOOD   THE   FINAL  IDEA 
OF  GOD 

It  is  an  attractive  theory  that  the  spiritual 
dominates  the  physical,  and  the  soul,  in  the 
long  run,  selects  its  own  body  :  it  is  an  evident 
fact  that  life  is  created  by  thought,  and  every 
action  has  its  root  in  the  Unseen.  What  one 
thinks  to-day,  he  will  do  to-morrow  ;  and  the 
first  equipment  for  living  is  a  creed.  No  one 
is  so  simple  that  he  does  not  hold  some  article 
firmly — it  may  be  attachment  to  his  tribe :  no 
one  is  so  liberal  that  he  has  cleansed  his  house 
of  every  article — he  will  possibly  deny  the 
knowledge  of  God.  Totemism  and  agnosti- 
cism are  the  extremes  of  belief ;  but  the  im- 
mense variety  between  those  brackets  proves 
that  whether  one  affirms  or  denies,  he  must 
have  a  belief  as  he  must  have  a  home.  His- 
tory proves  the  necessity  of  a  creed  :  experi- 


250       THE    MIND    OF   THE  MASTER 

ence  proves  its  effect.  As  the  light  of  the  sun 
colours  the  tiniest  blade  of  grass,  so  the  idea  in 
the  background  of  the  mind  tinges  every  detail 
of  life.  We  grant  that  a  man's  theology  will 
be  built  on  his  belief,  and  will  follow  its  lines 
to  the  highest  pinnacle.  This  is  a  grudging  con- 
cession, a  limited  analysis.  The  whole  energy  of 
a  human  life,  however  it  may  have  been  fed  on 
the  way,  and  whatever  common  wheels  it  may 
turn,  arises  from  the  spring  among  the  hills. 
Belief  gives  the  trend  to  politics,  constitutes 
the  rule  of  business,  composes  the  atmosphere 
of  home,  and  creates  the  horizon  of  the  soul. 
It  becomes  the  sovereign  arbiter  of  our  desti- 
nies, for  character  itself  is  the  precipitate  of  be- 
lief. 

••*» 

Belief,  within  the  sphere  of  religion,  has  a 
wide  range,  but  its  centre  is  God.  Tell  me 
what  is  your  conception  of  God,  -and  I  will 
work  out  your  doctrine  of  man,  of  forgiveness, 
of  life,  of  punishment.  Given  the  axioms,  and 
geometry  is  only  a  question  of  process.  Given 
your  God,  and  your  whole  theology  can  be 
constructed  within  a  measurable  time.  The 
chief  service  of  a  prophet  is  not  to  rebuke  sin, 
nor  instruct  in  virtue  :  it  is  to  give  the  world  a 


FATHERHOOD,  FINAL  IDEA  OF  GOD    251 

radiant  idea  of  God.  Has  he  no  word  on  God  ? 
Then  his  silence  is  irreparable  — every  other 
doctrine  will  be  isolated  and  fruitless.  Has  he 
a  fitting  idea  of  God  ?  Then  his  blank  chap- 
ters can  be  supplied ;  they  are  contained  in  the 
introduction.  If  a  prophet  deal  after  a  satisfy- 
ing fashion  with  the  idea  of  God,  he  will  be 
permanent.  If  a  prophet  complete  and  crown 
the  idea  of  God,  he  will  be  final.  Many  may 
expound  him  :  none  can  transcend  him.  Jesus 
taught  the  world  various  principles  of  religion 
— the  nature  of  faith,  the  glory  of  sacrifice,  the 
secret  of  peace,  the  strength  of  love.  These 
were  the  splendid  incidents  of  His  Gospel. 
The  Gospel  of  Jesus  was  the  revelation  of  God. 
Jesus  availed  Himself  of  what  existed,  and 
began  with  the  assumption  of  God.  He  never 
fell  into  the  banality  of  theology,  and  set  Him- 
self to  prove  the  existence  of  God,  which  is  as 
if  a  geologist  should  introduce  his  science  with 
an  argument  for  the  reality  of  the  world. 
When  one  has  to  begin  before  the  beginning, 
he  is  filled  with  despair,  for  that  way  lies  mad-' 
ness.  We  are  entitled  to  take  some  things  for 
granted,  as,  for  instance,  the  evidence  of  our 
senses  and  the  teaching  of  an  instinct.  Belief 


252      THE   MIND  OF   THE   MASTER 

in  God  is  an  instinct,  a  part  of  the  constitution 
of  the  soul.  It  may  be  confirmed  and  illus- 
trated :  it  must  not  be  proved,  for  the  proof  of 
an  instinct  is  its  denial.  When  Jesus  said  God 
He  appealed  to  the  belief  latent  in  every 
human  being,  and  called  it  into  a  nobler  exer- 
cise. He  did  not  create  the  idea  of  God — He 
illumined  it. 

Jesus  availed  Himself  also  of  what  had  been 
done,  and  accepted  that  character  of  God, 
which  was  the  discovery  of  ancient  piety.  As 
the  belief  in  God  began  with  the  first  father  of 
the  Race,  the  doctrine  of  God  began  with  the 
Hebrew  saints.  Long  centuries  before  Jesus, 
patriarchs  and  prophets  had  been  wrestling 
with  the  problems  of  the  Divine  Being  and  the 
Divine  Name.  With  the  sword  of  faith  and 
great  travail  of  soul,  those  pioneers  of  religion 
had  conquered,  foot  by  foot,  the  land  of  prom- 
ise, and  left  it  as  an  heritage  unto  their  chil- 
dren. They  had  extricated  the  idea  of  God 
from  the  work  of  men's  hands  and  the  phenom- 
ena of  nature :  in  later  days  the  pious  Jew 
guarded  it  from  the  abstractions  of  philosophy 
and  the  corrosion  of  scepticism.  This  mono- 
theism was  not  the  natural  tendency  of  the 


FATHERHOOD,  FINAL  IDEA  OF  GOD    253 

Semite,  born  of  the  desert  environment — that 
ingenious  naturalistic  theory  is  now  exploded  ; 
it  was  the  slow,  painful  attainment  of  Hebrew 
faith  reinforced  by  the  Divine  Spirit.  We  owe 
the  '  Living  God  '  to  the  Jew,  and  as  often  as 
this  sublime  conception  is  obscured  or  sapped 
by  the  eccentricities  of  modern  speculation,  the 
religious  consciousness  must  fall  back  on  the 
masculine  vigour  and  ethical  grandeur  of  Old 
Testament  thought. 

The  genius  of  the  Jewish  mind  was  not  meta- 
physical ;  it  could  not  have  produced  the  Atha- 
nasian  Creed  :  it  was  ethical ;  it  is  embodied  in 
the  Ten  Words.  With  the  Jew,  therefore,  God 
was  not  abstract  Being — the  First  Cause  of 
things.  He  was  actual  character,  the  '  Holy 
One  of  Israel.'  Jehovah  dwelt  in  the  high  and 
holy  place,  and  with  him  also  of  a  humble  and 
contrite  heart  ;  and  if  He  '  maketh  the  clouds 
His  chariot,'  and  '  walketh  upon  the  wings  of 
the  winds,'  His  'righteousness  is  like  the  great 
mountains,'  His  '  judgments  are  a  great  deep.' 
There  grew  in  the  consciousness  of  this  people 
the  idea  of  a  God  who  was  not  only  real — no 
carved  and  painted  log  of  prophetical  satire,  but 
also  moral— no  complacent  deity  tasting  the 


254      THE    MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

sweetness  of  his  worshippers'  sins.  They  yeril 
fied  His  character  in  the  disasters  that  followed 
national  corruption,  in  the  swift  recoveries  that 
rewarded  national  repentance.  In  the  mirror 
of  a  cleansed  conscience  the  prophets  saw  the 
face  of  God  ;  they  traced  His  life  in  the  proc- 
esses of  righteousness.  We  fail  sometimes  to 
appreciate  the  force  of  this  discovery  ;  wre  forget 
to  imagine  the  surprise.  With  moderns,  Deity 
and  virtue  are  synonymous;  with  ancients, 
/'  deities  and  vice  were  synonymous.  Upon  two 
hills  only  was  the  Divine  raised  above  the 

'  Howling  senses'  ebb  and  flow.' 

One  was  the  Acropolis  where  the  golden  shaft 
in  Athene's  hand  guided  the  mariner  passing 
Salamis.  The  other  was  the  Holy  Hill  where 
Jehovah  remained  the  refuge  of  every  righteous 
\  man.  But  the  advantage  lay  with  the  Jew. 
The  wisdom  of  Athens  was  seated  in  reason, 
and  did  not  affect  life  :  the  wisdom  of  Jerusa- 
lem was  seated  in  conscience,  and  created  con- 

V- 
duct.     The  Jewish  Savonarola  who  thundered 

in  Jerusalem, '  Wash  you,  make  you  clean  ;  put 
away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before  mine 
eyes,'  had  come  out  from  a  secret  place  where 


FATHERHOOD,  FINAL  IDEA  OF  GOD    255 

the  Seraphim  said,  '  Holy,    holy,  holy   is   the 
Lord  of  Hosts.' 

Jewish  piety  has  laid  the  world  under  a  hope- 
less debt  by  imagining  the  austere  holiness  of 
God,  and  has  doubled  the  obligation  by  adding 
His  tenderness.  It  was  an  achievement  to 
carve  the  white  marble ;  a  greater  to  make  it 
live  and  glow.  The  saints  of  Israel  touched 
their  highest  when  they  infused  the  idea  of  the 
Divine  spirituality  with  passion,  and  brought  it 
to  pass  that  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  is  the  kind- 
est deity  that  has  ever  entered  the  heart  of  man. 
There  was  no  human  emotion  they  did  not 
assign  to  God  ;  no  relationship  they  did  not 
use  as  the  illustration  of  His  love  ;  no  appeal 
of  affection  they  did  not  place  in  His  lips  ;  no 
sorrow  of  which  they  did  not  make  Him  par- 
taker. When  a  prophet's  inner  vision  had  been 
cleansed  by  the  last  agony  of  pain,  he  dares  to 
describe  the  Eternal  as  a  fond  mother  who  holds 
Ephraim  by  the  hands,  teaching  him  to  go  ;  who 
is  outraged  by  his  sin,  and  yet  cannot  bear  that 
Israel  should  perish :  as  a  Husband  who  has 
offered  a  rejected  love,  and  still  pleads  ;  who  is 
stained  by  a  wife's  unfaithfulness,  and  pursues 
an  adulteress  with  entreaties.  One  cannot  lay 


256      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

his  hand  on  the  body  of  prophetical  Scripture 
without  feeling  the  beat  of  the  Divine  heart : 
one  can  detect  in  its  most  distant  member  the 
warmth  of  the  Divine  love. 

Your  first  conclusion  is  that  faith  can  go  no 
farther:  your  second  reading  reveals  one  signifi- 
cant reserve.  Prophets  continually  call  God  the 
Father  of  the  nation ;  they  never  (with  one 
doubtful  exception)  call  Him  Father  of  the  in- 
dividual. Psalmists  revel  in  an  overflowing  im- 
agery for  God,  but  one  word  lying  to  their  hand 
they  do  not  use.  He  is  the  '  Shepherd  of  Is- 
rael '  and  '  our  dwelling-place  in  all  generations  ' ; 
He  is  the  '  Rock  of  my  Salvation '  and  a  '  very 
present  help  in  trouble  '  :  He  is  the  '  Health 
of  my  countenance/  and  '  thy  shade  on  thy 
right  hand '  ;  but  He  is  not  Father.  King  is 
the  Psalmists'  chief  title  for  God  and  his  high- 
est note.  '  The  Lord  reigneth.'  These  saints 
are  unapproachable  in  their  familiarity  with  the 
Eternal ;  they  will  argue  and  complain  ;  they 
will  demand  and  reproach,  but  never  at  any 
moment  are  they  so  carried  beyond  themselves 
as  to  say  '  My  Father.'  They  are  bold  within 
a  limit :  they  have  restraints  in  their  language. 
It  is  not  a  refusal  to  say  Father,  because  the 


FATHERHOOD,  FINAL  IDEA  OF  GOD    257 

idea  is  an  offence  :  it  is  an  unconsciousness — 
because  the  idea  has  not  yet  dawned.  The 
clouds  which  had  gradually  risen  from  the  base 
and  sides  of  the  doctrine  of  God  still  veil  the 
summit. 

When  one  passes  from  the  Gospels  to  the 
Psalms  he  is  struck  by  the  absence  of  Father. 
When  one  returns  he  is  struck  by  its  presence. 
The  Psalmist  never  said  the  word  ;  Jesus  never 
said  anything  else.  With  Jesus,  God  and 
Father  were  identical.  Fatherhood  was  not  a 
side  of  Deity ;  it  was  the  centre.  God  might 
be  a  King  and  Judge  ;  He  was  first  of  all,  and 
last  of  all,  and  through  all,  Father.  In  Father- 
hood every  other  relation  of  God  must  be 
harmonised  and  find  its  sphere.  Short  of  His 
Fatherhood  you  cannot  stop  in  the  ascent  of 
God.  Under  Fatherhood  is  gathered  every 
other  revelation.  Jesus  reasoned  in  terms  of 
the  Father :  '  If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know  how 
to  give  good  gifts  unto  your  children,  how 
much  more  shall  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven  give  good  things  to  those  that  ask 
Him  ? '  He  laboured  in  the  fellowship  of  the 
Father :  '  I  seek  not  Mine  own  will,  but  the 
will  of  the  Father  which  hath  sent  Me.'  He 
R 


258      THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

rested  in  the  wisdom  of  the  Father :  '  In  that 
hour  Jesus  rejoiced  in  spirit,  and  said,  I  thank 
Thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth, 
that  Thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the  wise 
and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  unto 
babes :  even  so,  Father  ;  for  so  it  seemed  good 
in  Thy  sight.'  And  Jesus  suffered  in  the  faith 
of  the  Father :  '  Therefore  doth  My  Father 
love  Me  because  I  lay  down  My  life  that  I 
might  take  it  again.  .  .  .  This  commandment 
have  I  received  of  My  Father.'  When  the 
consciousness  of  God  awoke  with  power  in  the 
soul  of  the  Holy  Child,  He  was  filled  with  a 
sudden  enthusiasm,  '  Wist  ye  not  that  I  must 
be  about  My  Father's  business  ? '  When  He 
had  fulfilled  His  calling  and  offered  His  sacri- 
fice, His  soul  turned  to  His  Father :  '  Father, 
into  Thy  hands  I  commend  My  Spirit.'  From 
Nazareth  to  Calvary  the  love  of  the  Father 
was  Jesus'  dwelling-place. 

'  In  that  one  thought  He  abode 
For  ever  in  that  thought  more  deeply  sinking.' 

No  one  can  ignore  this  constant  and  radiant 
sense  of  the  Divine  Fatherhood  in  the  life  of 
Jesus.  It  must  be  a  suggestive  fact  to  an  un- 


FATHERHOOD,  FINAL  IDEA  OF  GOD    259 

believer,  for  it  will  be  admitted  on  every  hand 
that  Jesus  knew  more  about  Religion  than  any 
man  that  has  ever  lived.  It  ought  to  be  an  ab- 
solute conclusion  to  a  believer,  since  he  holds 
that  Jesus  is  Himself  Very  God  of  Very  God. 
It  goes  without  saying  that  Jesus'  sense  of 
the  Fatherhood  must  be  supreme.  It  is  a  con- 
tradiction of  the  Gospels  to  say  that  it  was  ex- 
clusive. Jesus  toiled  for  three  years  to  write 
the  truth  of  the  Fatherhood  on  the  minds  of 
the  disciples,  with  at  least  one  result,  that  it  is 
interwoven  with  the  pattern  of  the  Gospels. 
He  pleaded  also  with  His  friends  that  they 
should  receive  it  into  their  hearts  till  St.  John 
filled  his  epistles  with  this  word.  With  minute 
and  affectionate  care,  Jesus  described  the  whole 
circle  of  religious  thought,  and  stated  it  in 
terms  of  the  Fatherhood.  Prayer  was  to  be  to 
the  Father :  say  '  Our  Father,  which  art  in 
heaven.'  The  principle  of  life  was  the  Will  of 
the  Father :  he  only  attained  who  had  done 
the  '  Will  of  our  Father  which  is  in  heaven.' 
The  type  of  character  was  the  Father  :  '  Be  ye 
therefore  perfect,  even  as  your  Father  which  is 
in  heaven  is  perfect.'  Providence  is  the  mind- 
ful oversight  of  a  Father :  '  Your  heavenly 


260         THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

Father  knoweth  that  ye  have  need  of  all  these 
things.'  Repentance  was  a  return  to  the 
Father:  'I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father.' 
One  of  the  few  rays  Jesus  cast  on  the  future 
showed  the  Father's  dwelling-place  :  '  In  My 
Father's  house  are  many  mansions.'  The 
effect  of  such  passages  is  cumulative  and  irre- 
sistible. They  are  better  than  the  proof  texts 
for  a  dogma  ;  they  are  an  atmosphere  in  which 
religion  lives  and  moves  and  has  its  being. 
They  are  sunrise. 

People  with  dogmatic  ends  to  serve  have 
striven  to  believe  that  Jesus  reserved  Father 
for  the  use  of  His  disciples  ;  but  an  ingenuous 
person  could  hardly  make  the  discovery  in  the 
Gospels.  One  searches  in  vain  to  find  that 
Jesus  had  an  esoteric  word  for  His  intimates, 
and  an  exoteric  for  the  people,  saying  Father 
to  John  and  Judge  to  the  publicans.  It  had 
been  amazing  if  Jesus  were  able  to  employ 
alternatively  two  views  of  God  according  to 
His  audience,  speaking  now  as  an  Old  Testa- 
ment Prophet,  now  as  the  Son  of  God.  It  is 
recorded  in  the  Gospels,  '  Then  spake  Jesus  to 
the  multitude  and  His  disciples,  saying,  .  .  .  one 
is  your  Father,  which  is  in  heaven.'  This  at- 


FATHERHOOD,  FINAL  IDEA  OF  GOD    261 

tempt  to  restrict  the  intention  of  Jesus  is  not 
of  yesterday  ;  it  was  the  invention  of  the  Phar- 
isees. They  detected  the  universal  note  in 
Jesus'  teaching  ;  they  resented  His  unguarded 
charity.  Their  spiritual  instincts  were  not 
wide,  but  they  were  very  keen,  within  a  limited 
range,  and  the  Pharisees  judged  with  much 
correctness  that  the  teaching  of  Jesus  and  the 
privileges  of  Judaism  were  inconsistent.  If  a 
publican  was  a  son  of  God,  what  advantage 
had  a  Pharisee  ?  It  was  natural  that  they 
should  murmur :  we  are  now  thankful  that 
they  criticised  the  Master.  Jesus  made  His 
defence  in  His  three  greatest  parables,  and  in 
the  Parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  He  defined 
the  range  of  the  Divine  Fatherhood  beyond 
reasonable  dispute.  His  deliverance  was  given 
with  deliberation — in  Jesus'  most  finished  par- 
able ;  the  parable  was  created  for  a  definite 
purpose — to  vindicate  Jesus'  intercourse  with 
sinners.  It  contains  Jesus'  most  complete  de- 
scription of  a  sinner — from  his  departure  to  his 
return  ;  with  emphasis  it  declares  that  sinner  a 
son  of  God — a  'son  was  lost  and  is  found.' 
Between  the  son  in  the  far  country  and  the 
son  at  home  is  an  immense  difference  ;  but  if 


262         THE    MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

he  had  not  been  a  son  from  home,  there  had 
been  no  home  for  his  return.  The  possibility 
of  salvation  lies  in  sonship.  It  would  not  be 
fair  to  rest  any  master  doctrine  on  a  single  par- 
able, were  it  not  that  the  parable  is  Jesus' 
definition  of  Fatherhood,  given  in  answer  to 
the  practical  challenge  of  privilege,  were  it  not 
that  it  simply  crystallises  the  whole  teaching 
of  Jesus  on  God  from  His  boyhood  to  His 
death.  If  Jesus  did  not  teach  a  Divine 
Fatherhood  embracing  the  Race,  then  He  used 
words  to  conceal  thought,  and  one  despairs  of 
ever  understanding  our  Master. 

When  Jesus  speaks  of  Fatherhood,  it  is  al- 
most a  stupidity  to  explain  that  He  is  not 
thinking  of  any  physical  relation — the  '  off- 
spring '  of  the  heathen  poets,  and  that  Father 
is  not  a  synonym  for  Creator.  Jesus  rested 
His  own  Sonship  on  community  of  character. 
God  was  love,  for  He  gave  His  only  Son,  and 
Jesus  was  love,  for  He  gave  Himself.  He  rea- 
lised His  Sonship  in  community  of  service. 
'  My  Father  worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work.' 
The  bond  between  son  and  father  in  the  spirit- 
ual world  is  ethical.  It  is  perfect  between  the 
Father  and  the  Son  in  the  Holy  Trinity :  it  is 


FATHERHOOD,  FINAL  IDEA  OF  GOD  263 

only  a  suggestion  between  a  sinner  and  God. 
As  one  can  detect  some  trace  of  likeness  be- 
tween a  father  and  his  son,  although  the  son 
may  have  played  the  fool,  and  defiled  the 
fashion  of  his  countenance,  so  the  most  de- 
graded and  degenerate  of  human  outcasts  still 
bears  the  faint  remains  of  the  Divine  image, 
The  capability  of  repentance  is  the  remains  of 
righteousness  ;  the  occasional  aspirations  after 
goodness  are  the  memories  of  home ;  the  rec- 
ognition of  right  and  wrong  is  an  affinity  to  the 
mind  of  God.  The  sonship  is  hidden  in  Zac- 
cheus  and  Mary  Magdalene — a  mere  possibility  ; 
in  St.  John  and  St.  Paul  it  is  revealed — a  beau- 
tiful actuality,  so  that  this  paradox  is  only  the 
deeper  truth  that  one  may  be,  and  yet  become, 
a  son,  as  the  ethical  likeness  is  acknowledged 
and  cleansed.  Jesus'  message  was,  '  You  are  a 
son.'  As  soon  as  it  was  believed,  Jesus  gave 
power  to  live  as  a  son  with  God. 

With  this  single  word  '  Father,'  Jesus  in- 
stantly defines  the  relation  of  man  and  God, 
and  illuminates  theology.  He  transfers  the 
Divine  idea  from  the  schools,  where  they  discuss 
the  Sovereignty  of  God,  to  the  hearth,  where 
the  littlo  children  can  say  '  Our  Father'  with 


264-     THE    MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

understanding.  It  was  a  felicitious  image 
which  suddenly  appropriated  for  theology  the 
analogies  of  love  and  the  associations  of  home ; 
which  teaches  us  to  argue  with  irresistible  force 
what  my  father  on  earth  would  not  do  because 
it  is  evil  my  Father  in  heaven  will  not  do ; 
what  my  father  here  will  do  of  good,  that  and 
more  my  Father  above  will  do.  Granted  that 
this  is  anthropomorphic  reasoning,  how  else 
can  we  argue  than  from  the  good  in  us  to  the 
better  in  God  ?  Granted  that  this  analogy  is 
faint,  that  only  invests  it  with  more  winsome 
attraction.  What  an  astounding  gaucherie  it 
has  been  to  state  the  intimate  relation  between 
God  and  the  soul  in  the  language  of  criminal 
law,  with  bars,  prisoners,  sentences.  This  ter- 
minology has  two  enormous  disadvantages.  It 
is  unintelligible  to  any  one  who  is  not  a  crimi- 
nal or  a  lawyer  ;  it  is  repulsive  to  any  one  who 
desires  to  love  God.  Take  it  at  the  highest,  it 
was  the  spirit  of  Moses.  Without  disparage- 
ment to  a  former  dispensation,  it  has  been  su- 
perseded by  the  spirit  of  Jesus. 

One  is  not  astonished  that  some  of  Jesus' 
deepest  sayings  are  still  unfathomed,  or  that 
some  of  His  widest  principles  are  not  yet  ap- 


FATHERHOOD,  FINAL  IDEA  OF  GOD  265 

plied.  Jesus  is  the  Eternal  Son,  and  the  ages 
overtake  Him  slowly.  One  is  aghast  to  dis- 
cover that  the  doctrine  which  Jesus  put  in  the 
forefront  of  His  teaching  and  laboured  at  with 
such  earnestness  did  not  leave  a  trace  on  the 
dominant  theology  of  the  early  Church,  and  for 
long  centuries  passed  out  of  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness. Had  it  not  been  for  the  Lord's 
Prayer  and,  in  a  sense,  the  three  Creeds,  no 
witness  had  been  left  for  the  Fatherhood  in 
Christian  doctrine  and  worship.  The  Anglican 
communion  has  thirty-nine  articles,  with  one  on 
oaths,  one  on  the  descent  into  hell,  one  on  the 
marriage  of  priests,  one  on  how  to  avoid  people 
that  are  excommunicate,  and  not  one  on  the 
Fatherhood.  The  Presbyterian  communion 
has  a  confession  with  thirty-three  chapters, 
which  deal  in  a  trenchant  manner  with  great 
mysteries,  but  there  is  not  one  expounding  the 
Fatherhood  of  God.  It  was  quite  allowable 
that  theology  should  formulate  doctrines  on 
subjects  Jesus  never  mentioned,  such  as  original 
sin  ;  and  elaborate  theories  on  facts  Jesus  left 
in  their  simplicity,  such  as  His  sacrifice.  These 
speculations  are  the  function  of  that  science, 
but  it  is  inexcusable  that  the  central  theme  of 


266      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

Jesus'  teaching  should  have  been  ignored  or 
minimised.  This  silence,  from  the  date  of  the 
Greek  fathers  to  the  arrival  of  the  modern 
Broad  Churchman,  has  been  more  than  an 
omission  ;  it  has  been  a  heresy. 

It  is  an  endless  consolation  that  our  Master's 
words  are  indestructible  and  eternal.  Certain 
ideas  of  Jesus  disappeared,  and  seemed  to  have 
died  ;  they  were  not  dead,  they  were  only 
sown.  When  their  due  time  came  they  awoke 
to  life,  and  it  is  now  spring-time  with  the 
Fatherhood.  The  disciples  of  Jesus  owe  a  debt 
that  can  never  be  paid  to  three  men  that  have 
brought  us  back  to  the  mind  of  our  Master. 
One  was  Channing,  for  whose  love  to  Jesus  one 
might  be  tempted  to  barter  his  belief ;  the 
second  was  Maurice,  most  honest  and  con- 
scientious of  theologians ;  and  the  third  was 
Erskine  of  Linlathen,  who  preached  the  Father- 
hood to  every  one  he  met,  from  Thomas  Carlyle 
I  to  Highland  shepherds.  This  sublime  truth 
received  at  first  the  same  treatment  from  the 
nineteenth  century  as  from  the  first.  Its  in- 
herent grace  has  not  been  an  immediate  com- 
mendation ;  its  utter  reasonableness  has  been 
an  indirect  provocation.  But  the  spirit  of  Jesus 


FATHERHOOD,  FINAL  IDEA  OF  GOD  267 

has  been  working  in  men  age  after  age,  and  it 
is  now  evident  that  the  name  for  God  that  lay 
in  Jesus'  hearths  to  be  acclimatised  in  the 
Christian  consciousness. 

Two  persons  hesitate  to  accept  the  Father- 
hood in  its  fulness  who  are  neither  biassed  by 
spiritual  pride  nor  are  disloyal  to  Jesus.  With 
one  it  is  an  ethical  difficulty,  that  stands  in  the 
way ;  he  has  a  rooted  suspicion  that  the  asser- 
tion of  God's  Fatherhood  means  the  denial  of 
His  authority,  and  that  we  shall  exchange  the 
Hply  One  of  Israel  for  a  magnified  Eli.  Certain 
advocates  of  Jesus'  idea  have  themselves  to 
blame  for  this  misapprehension,  since  they  have 
invested  the  '  Holy  Father '  of  Jesus,  whose 
Name  is  '  hallowed,'  with  a  cloud  of  sickly 
sentiment,  making  Him  a  God  too  weak  to 
rule,  too  soft-hearted  to  punish.  If  this  con- 
ception should  obtain,  Christianity  would 
deserve  to  lose  her  hold  on  the  conscience,  and 
morality  would  have  to  fight  for  very  existence. 
Jesus  is  not  responsible  for  this  helpless  Deity, 
this  pitiable  descent  from  the  God  of  the 
prophets.  With  Jesus,  the  Father  was  Lord  of 
heaven  and  earth,  who  '  seeth  in  secret,'  and 
holds  the  times  in  His  hand,  who  has  not  only 


268       THE   MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

prepared  the  '  many  mansions,'  but  also  the 
cleansing  fires  of  Gehenna.  No  judge  is  so 
omniscient  as  a  father,  no  despot  so  absolute. 
The  Father  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  not 
less  awful  than  the  God  of  the  Ten  words,  nor 
is  the  conscience  of  St.  John  less  strenuous 
than  the  conscience  of  Moses. 

The  second  objection  is  practical,  and  carries 
much  force,  for  it  simply  comes  to  this,  that 
experience  is  a  denial  of  the  Fatherhood.  One 
admires  the  Galilean  dreamer  with  his  Father- 
God,  and  His  charming  illustrations  of  the  lilies 
and  the  birds,  but  this  one  says  is  an  idyll,  and 
life  is  real.  What  signs  of  paternal  government 
can  be  found  in  the  martyrdom  of  man  from 
the  first  days  of  history  to  the  last  war,  in  the 
hideous  sufferings  of  slavery,  or  in  the  equal 
miseries  of  great  cities?  With  such  a  record 
before  one,  it  is  certainly  open  to  argue  that 
Jesus  was  too  optimistic.  Granted,  but  that 
does  not  close  the  question.  With  the  record 
of  His  own  life  before  'one,  it  is  not  open  to 
conclude  Jesus  was  wrong.  He  drank  the 
bitterest  cup ;  He  suffered  the  shamefullest 
death,  and  yet  reconciled  the  incalculable 
tragedy  of  His  life  with  the  love  of  His  Father. 


FATHERHOOD,  FINAL  IDEA  OF  GOD  269 

Jesus  did  not  regard  suffering  as  the  contradic- 
tion of  love  ;  it  was  one  of  its  methods.  When 
Jesus  said  Father  on  the  Cross,  it  may  have 
been  a  pathetic  delusion,  but  it  was  the  delusion 
of  Him  who  of  all  the  Race  knew  God  best. 

One  joyfully  anticipates  the  place  this  final 
idea  of  God  will  have  in  the  new  theology. 
Criticism  has  cleared  the  ground  and  gathered 
its  building  materials.  A  certain  conception  of 
God  must  be  the  foundation  and  give  shape  to 
the  whole  structure.  No  one  can  seriouslyX 
doubt  that  it  will  be  the  Fatherhood,  and  that 
Jesus'  dearest  thought  will  dominate  theology. 
No  doctrine  of  the  former  theology  will  be  lost ; 

all  will  be  recarved  and  refaced  to  suit  the  new 

j 

architecture.  Sovereignty  will  remain,  not  that 
of  a  despot,  but  of  a  father;  the  Incarnation 
will  not  be  an  expedient,  but  a  consummation ; 
the  Sacrifice  will  not  be  a  satisfaction,  but  a 
reconciliation  :  the  end  of  Grace  will  not  be 
standing,  but  character ;  the  object  of  punish- 
ment will  not  be  retribution,  but  regeneration. 
Mercy  and  justice  will  no  longer  be  antinomies  ; 
they  will  be  aspects  of  Love,  and  the  principle 
of  human  probation  will  be  exchanged  for  the 
principle  of  human  education. 


270      THE    MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

One  sees  already  the  place  which  the  Father- 
hood will  have  in  the  new  life  into  which  the 
race  in  every  land  is  entering.  While  piety 
imagined  God  as  the  Father  of  a  few  and  the 
Judge  of  the  rest,  humanity  was  belittled  and 
Pharisaism  reigned  ;  slavery  was  defended  from 
the  Bible,  and  missions  were  counted  an  imper- 
tinence. When  He  is  recognised  as  the  uni- 
versal Father,  and  the  outcasts  of  Humanity  as 
His  prodigal  children,  every  effort  of  love  will 
be  stimulated,  and  the  Kingdom  of  God  will 
advance  by  leaps  and  bounds.  As  this  sublime 
truth  is  believed,  national  animosities,  social 
divisions,  religious  hatreds  and  inhuman 
doctrines  will  disappear.  No  class  will  regard 
itself  as  favoured :  no  class  will  feel  itself  re- 
jected, for  all  men  everywhere  will  be  embraced 
in  the  mission  of  Jesus  and  the  love  of  the 
Father. 


THE   FORESIGHT   OF    FAITH 


XIII 
THE  FORESIGHT  OF  FAITH 

The  difference  between  the  eternal  vision  of 
God  and  the  temporal  outlook  of  man  has  been 
compared  to  one  standing  on  a  hill  with  the 
landscape  in  its  length  and  breadth  before  him, 
and  another  crossing  the  plain  in  a  swiftly  mov- 
ing train,  on  whom  the  landscape  breaks  part 
by  part.  This  ingenious  illustration,  after  it  has 
served  its  purpose  to  show  the  relation  of  eter- 
nity and  time,  may  be  utilised  to  suggest  that 
we  also  have  an  eternal  kinship.  We  retain 
what  we  have  seen  after  it  has  vanished  ;  we 
anticipate  what  has  yet  to  be  seen  before  it  ap- 
pears. It  is  the  present  which  is  not  yet  ours, 
since  it  is  only  being  transferred  to  the  exposed 
plate  of  experience — the  past  and  the  future  are 
carried  in  our  consciousness.  One  faculty  of 
our  mysterious  nature  records,  as  by  an  auto- 
matic register,  the  experiences  of  yesterday,  so 
S 


274       THE   MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

that  not  one  deed,  or  word,  or  thought  is  lost — 
not  one  but  can  be  reproduced  by  some  com- 
monplace spell,  the  crowing  of  a  cock  at  early 
dawn,  or  the  fragrance  of  dried  rose-leaves  in 
some  old-fashioned  drawing-room.  Another 
pictures  with  minute  prophetic  power  the  ex- 
periences of  to-morrow,  so  that  the  distant  hori- 
zon is  golden  with  inspiring  illusions,  or  black 
with  brooding  anxieties.  We  are  the  slaves  of 
memory  and  imagination,  but  in  the  conflict  for 
the  control  of  the  soul  imagination  is  easily  vic- 
tor. Hope  rather  than  repentance  is  the  instru- 
ment of  salvation. 

Imagination  is  the  faculty  which  represents 
the  future,  foresight  is  the  quality  which  pos- 
sesses it ;  and  foresight  is  one  of  the  standards 
of  character.  Without  foresight  no  one  can 
claim  to  be  of  serious  account — he  may  take 
lessons  from  an  ant  ;  with  it  no  one  need  de- 
spair of  any  achievement — he  has  outrun  time. 
Foresight  confers  distinction  on  every  effort  of 
man,  and  raises  it  a  degree.  It  elevates  econ- 
omy into  providence  ;  it  broadens  business  into 
enterprise  ;  with  this  addition  politics  become 
statesmanship,  and  literature  prophecy.  Life 
gains  perspective  and  atmosphere  ;  it  is  rein- 


THE  FORESIGHT  OF  FAITH        275 

forced  by  unseen  hopes  and  rewards.  The  bur- 
den of  the  future  becomes  a  balance  in  life,  tem- 
pering the  intoxication  of  joy  with  the  cares  of 
to-morrow,  and  softening  the  bitterness  of  sor- 
row with  its  compensations.  Foresight,  send- 
ing on  its  spies  into  the  land  of  promise,  returns 
to  brace  and  cheer  every  power  of  the  soul,  and 
becomes  the  mother  of  all  hardy  and  strenuous 
virtues,  a  self-restraint,  and  self-denial,  of  sacri- 
fice and  patience.  He  who  seizes  to-day  may 
have  pleasure ;  he  who  grasps  to-morrow  shall 
have  power. 

An  admirable  work  of  modern  art  shows 
Jesus  standing  at  the  door  of  a  carpenter's  shop, 
and  stretching  Himself  after  a  long  day's  labour. 
The  setting  sun  falling  on  His  outspread  arms 
makes  the  shadow  of  the  cross,  and  carries  ter- 
ror into  Mary's  heart.  The  attitude  of  the 
body  was  typical  of  the  attitude  of  the  soul. 
Jesus  grasped  at  the  future,  as  He  seemed  also 
to  carry  with  Him  a  mysterious  past.  Before 
Him  extended  the  long  distances  of  the  Divine 
Will,  and  He  arranged  His  life  for  Calvary. 
When  a  pious  scholar  came  by  night  to  discuss 
His  new  ideas,  Jesus  could  not  explain  the 
Kingdom  of  God  without  a  reference  to  His 


276      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

cross.  As  He  spake  in  the  synagogue  of  Ca- 
pernaum after  the  miracle  of  the'joaves,  His  sacri- 
fice rose  before  Him,  and  the  bread  of  life  be- 
came His  Flesh  and  His  Blood.  On  the  way 
to  Jerusalem  He  drew  His  disciples  aside,  and, 
while  the  people  passed  in  their  carelessness, 
Jesus  described  the  tragedy  that  was  at  hand. 
The  sight  of  certain  foreign  Jews,  full  of  curios- 
ity about  this  new  ^Master,  suggested  to  Him 
that  throne  from  which  He  was  to  rule  the 
world,  and  He  saw  across  His  Passion  the  vic- 
tory of  His  Love.  In  the  upper  room  His  vi- 
sion had  passed  beyond  the  cross,  and  He  com- 
manded that  the  sacrament  of  His  Body  and 
Blood  should  be  celebrated  till  His  second  ad- 
vent. After  His  resurrection  He  gave  the  first 
earnest  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  anticipated  the 
spread  of  the  Evangel  throughout  the  world. 
With  Jesus  the  present  was  ever  eclipsed  by  the 
future,  so  that  while  the  multitude  would  have 
made  Him  a  King,  He  saw  Himself  forsaken 
on  a  cross  ;  and  while  He  was  about  to  be  cruci- 
fied, He  was  promising  to  return  for  the  judg- 
ment of  the  world.  He  set  His  face  sted- 
fastly,  lifted  above  the  ebb  and  flow  of  cir- 
cumstances, because  the  Divine  Will  was 


THE  FORESIGHT  OF  FAITH        277 

ever  revealing  itself,  peak  above  peak,  to  the 
ages  of  ages. 

Possessed  by  the  spirit  of  to-morrow,  it  was 
natural  that  our  Master  should  labour  to  imbue 
His  disciples  with  the  same  ;  but  on  a  first  read- 
ing His  teaching  presents  a  perplexing  paradox. 
This  Man,  who  was  born  amid  the  narrow 
circumstances  of  poverty,  and  acquainted  with 
its  exacting  cares,  belittles  ordinary  prudence  to 
an  audience  of  country  folk,  and  gives  counsels 
of  perfection  about  an  easy  mind.  With  the 
scanty  wages  of  Galilee,  and  the  charge  of  little 
children,  they  were  to  allow  to-morrow  to  take 
care  of  itself,  and  not  even  concern  themselves 
about  the  bare  necessaries  of  life.  He  saw  His 
chosen  disciples  fling  away  their  only  means  of 
livelihood  with  approval,  and  sent  them  forth 
on  a  mission,  as  bare  as  the  monks  of  St. 
Francis.  If  a  young  man  won  His  love,  He 
did  not  hesitate  to  demand  the  sacrifice  of  his 
possessions,  and  He  pursued,  with  bitter  mock- 
ing, rich  men  who  doubled  their  investments. 
As  for  Himself,  He  was  dependent  on  the 
charity  of  pious  women,  and  had  to  work  a 
miracle  to  pay  the  temple  tax.  He  seems  to 
justify  the  light  heart  of  imprudence,  and  the 


278 


recklessness  of  impulse,  to  condemn  prudence 
as  unbelief,  and  enterprise  as  crass  foolishness. 
Parallel  with  this  depreciation  of  foresight, 
runs  an  endless  exhortation  to  its  practice.  The 
Kingdom  of  God  as  the  Chief  Good  is  to  be  the 
first  object  in  life ;  it  is  the  pearl  of  great  price 
which  one  ought  to  secure  as  the  best  of  all  his 
possessions.  It  was  wisdom  to  humble  one's 
self  as  a  little  child,  because  the  child-character 
stood  highest  in  the  coming  State ;  and  better 
to  take  the  lowest  room  at  the  feast  of  life, 
since  the  lowest  would  be  the  highest  in  the 
end.  If  one  did  sell  all  he  had  for  Christ's 
sake,  he  would  have  treasure  in  heaven  ;  and 
they  who  abandoned  their  best  in  His  service, 
had  the  promise  of  a  hundred-fold  return.  It 
was  shrewder  to  labour  for  the  Living  Bread 
than  for  the  meat  that  perisheth,  because  it 
would  endure ;  and  to  place  one's  capital  in 
heaven  rather  than  on  earth,  because  of  the 
moth  and  rust  which  corrupt,  and  the  thieves 
which  break  through  and  steal.  Lazarus,  with 
his  good  things  on  the  other  side,  has  the 
advantage  over  Dives  with  his  brief  while  of 
purple  and  fine  linen  ;  and  as  a  mere  matter  of 
profit  and  loss,  he  that  saves  his  soul  is  wiser 


THE  FORESIGHT  OF  FAITH        279 

than  he  who  gains  a  world.  Jesus  amazes  us 
twice,  first  by  casting  the  principle  of  prudence 
out  of  common  life  and  making  no  provision 
for  the  future  ;  and  second,  by  introducing  the 
principle  of  prudence  into  the  sphere  of  religion, 
and  making  the  rewards  of  the  Kingdom  of 
heaven  a  subject  of  calculation. 

Let  us  remember  that  one  of  Jesus'  most 
convincing  characteristics  was  a  certain  sound- 
ness of  mind,  which  kept  Him  continually  in 
contact  with  fact  and  life.  He  accepted  creation 
before  proceeding  to  regeneration,  and  preferred 
to  utilise  human  nature  rather  than  quarrel 
with  it.  Foresight  is  an  instinct  which  is 
atrophied  in  criminals  and  wastrels,  which 
flourishes  in  workers  and  rulers.  It  may  be 
cultivated  either  within  the  sphere  of  the  seen 
or  the  unseen,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  has 
seldom  been  adopted  by  faith.  With  two 
worlds  before  His  eye,  Jesus  proposed  to  shift 
the  venue  of  this  influential  motive  from  this 
world  into  that  which  is  to  come,  and  sought 
to  accomplish  the  change  by  starving  foresight, 
when  expended  upon  the  material,  and  foster- 
ing it  when  devoted  to  the  spiritual.  As  it  is 
evidently  out  of  the  question  that  one  can 


280      THE  MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

make  the  best  of  both  worlds— ye  cannot  serve 
God  and  Mammon,  as  our  Master  said  in  His 
conclusive  way — Jesus  desired  that  His  dis- 
ciples should  concentrate  themselves  upon  the 
world  which  remaineth. 

Jesus  embodied  His  comparative  view  of 
material  and  spiritual  foresight  in  a  parable 
which  has  a  double  distinction.  The  Unjust 
Steward  is  the  only  parable  of  Jesus  which 
gives  for  one  instant  a  shock  of  moral  offence 
to  the  reader;  it  is  also  the  only  one  which 
illustrates  the  action  of  the  principle  of  fore- 
sight on  two  different  ethical  levels.  It  is  quite 
allowable  for  us  to  be  surprised  that  Jesus 
should  choose  a  case  of  deliberate  and  clever 
fraud  for  a  parable ;  it  is  scarcely  pardonable 
that  any  intelligent  person  should  suppose  that 
Jesus  approved  or  condoned  the  fraud.  One  is 
indeed  struck  by  Jesus'  felicity  in  selecting  a 
set  of  circumstances  which  will  so  certainly 
excite  intellectual  curiosity,  and  so  perfectly 
bring  out  His  point.  Within  the  briefest 
space  the  place  of  foresight  in  human  action 
is  defined,  while  its  lower  application  is 
skilfully  depreciated,  and  its  higher  power 
fully  enforced.  It  is  Jesus'  most  incisive  de- 


THE  FORESIGHT  OF  FAITH        281 

liverance     on    worldliness,    and    other-worldli- 
ness. 

The  parable  is  a  palimpsest  whose  surface 
presents  a  story  in  commercial  life,  so  ignoble 
and  uninviting  that  it  does  not  deserve  record, 
and  contains  beneath  half-hidden,  half-revealed, 
a  gospel  of  Jesus.  But  this  palimpsest  has  a 
peculiarity  of  its  own,  because  the  upper  legend 
is  not  an  obliteration  of  the  lower  truth,  but 
rather  its  introduction — the  envelope  which 
holds  the  message.  One  ought  not  to  erase  the 
legend  before  he  has  mastered  it,  because  in 
that  case  he  will  miss  the  key  to  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  truth.  This  indolent  and  luxurious 
steward,  without  conscience  or  manliness,  Is  the 
lowest  type  of  a  man  of  this  world.  The  un- 
expected discovery  of  his  embezzlement,  and 
his  threatened  dismissal  from  office,  are  the 
sudden  changes  which  affect  the  ease  and 
comfort  of  the  present  life.  His  vivid  anticipa- 
tions of  the  hardness  of  life  for  a  poor  and  dis- 
graced man  show  how  selfishness  can  be  served 
by  imagination.  And  the  fellow's  fraudulent 
device  is  an  example  of  insurance  against  com- 
ing risks,  and  of  adaptation  to  new  circum- 
stances. Jesus  did  not  choose  an  honourable 


282       THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER 

merchant  because  He  required  the  dismissal  for 
His  parable,  and  He  desired  to  invest  sheer 
worldliness  with  a  dash  of  contempt.  This  was 
a  petty  rascal — a  mere  fox  of  a  man — but  he 
saved  himself,  according  to  his  lights,  by  fore- 
sight. 

The  under  writing  on  the  parchment  corre- 
sponds with  the  upper,  save  for  one  or  two  sig- 
nificant blanks,  and  is  a  translation  of  the  same 
story  into  another  language.  This  self-indul- 
gent steward  is  replaced  by  the  disciple  of  Jesus 
with  his  cross.  Death  will  release  him  from 
this  inhospitable  life  and  restore  him  to  his 
home.  Yet  his  imagination  has  never  realised 
what  shall  be  the  splendour  of  his  spiritual 
environment.  And  he  is  not  striving  with  all 
his  might  so  to  till  the  opportunities  of  this 
life  that  he  shall  reap  their  harvest  in  the  life 
which  is  to  come.  That  shallow  trickster  will 
sell  his  conscience  to  secure  a  roof  above  his 
head  for  a  brief  space  ;  but  Jesus'  disciple  will 
not  bestir  himself  to  make  certain  of  everlasting 
habitations.  It  was  to  Jesus  quite  astonishing 
either  that  any  one  should  take  much  thought 
what  might  befall  him  in  this  world  which 
passeth  away,  or  that  any  one  should  be  indif- 


THE   FORESIGHT   OF   FAITH       283 

ferent  to  the  infinite  attraction  of  the  world 
which  abideth.  The  parable  is  a  eulogium  on 
foresight,  and  a  plea  that  its  whole  force  should 
be  used  to  secure  the  '  everlasting  habitations.' 
It  is  Jesus'  argument  for  '  other-worldliness.' 

It  may  be  frankly  admitted  that  a  very 
coarse  and  sordid  interpretation  can  be  put  on 
this  argument,  and  the  conduct  of  the  unjust 
steward  be  repeated  with  aggravation  on  the 
spiritual  side  of  things.  The  parable  does  lend 
itself  to  that  material  Theology  whether  of 
Rome  or  Geneva,  which  teaches  that  Heaven 
can  be  literally  bought.  Whether  the  price  be 
the  merits  of  Jesus  or  the  merits  of  saints,  the 
sufferings  of  Jesus  or  the  alms  of  penitents, 
does  not  matter,  since  in  either  case  the  princi- 
ple is  the  same  and  is  clearly  unreasonable. 
Heaven  is  a  spiritual  state  and  its  settlement 
on  any  person,  either  on  account  of  a  payment 
in  blood  or  money,  is  an  absurdity.  His  intro- 
duction into  this  new  environment  without  re- 
spect to  his  fitness  would  be  an  outrage.  This 
is  too  literal  a  rendering  of  the  steward's  book- 
keeping ;  too  flagrant  a  contradiction  of  the 
whole  spirit  of  Jesus'  teaching.  What  is  in- 
tended is  different.  Jesus'  blood  will  give 


284      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

white  robes  which  are  the  dress  of  Heaven: 
the  faithful  use  of  riches  will  produce  character 
which  is  the  passport  to  Heaven.  One  can 
imagine  how  the  penitent  thief  might  become 
suddenly  fit  for  Paradise,  because  he  did  hom- 
age to  goodness — when  goodness  was  obscured 
by  the  shame  and  weakness  of  the  cross.  One 
cannot  imagine  Ananias  obtaining  entrance  by 
the  unwilling  gift  of  all  he  possessed,  or  by  an 
act  of  mercenary  faith.  Foresight  will  win 
Heaven,  but  it  is  not  the  foresight  of  a  mercan- 
tile speculation. 

One  remembers  at  the  same  time  that  certain 
persons  in  the  Gospels  did  use  their  earthly 
possessions  after  such  a  wise  and  gracious  fash- 
ion that  they  proved  themselves  not  unworthy 
to  have  a  place  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
either  in  this  world  or  the  next.  The  Magi 
who  brought  their  gifts  to  the  Holy  Child ;  the 
faithful  women  who  made  a  home  for  God's 
Son  ;  St.  Matthew,  and  such  as  he,  who  left  all 
to  follow  Him  ;  Zaccheus,  who  in  honour  of 
His  coming  gave  half  of  his  goods  to  the  poor  ; 
Joseph,  who  obtained  Christ's  body  from  Pilate 
and  laid  it  in  his  own  garden  tomb,  were  good 
stewards.  These  men  did  make  friends  with 


THE   FORESIGHT   OF   FAITH       285 

the  mammon  of  unrighteousness,  and  changed 
their  gold  and  silver  into  eternal  riches.  They 
did  not  make  their  sacrifices  for  ends  of  gain, 
but  for  love's  sake.  Keeping  the  one  com- 
mandment of  Love,  they  had  kept  all  the 
others,  and  had  a  right  to  enter  in  by  the  gate 
into  the  City.  This  little  handful  saw  farther 
than  all  their  generation,  for  in  the  things  of 
the  Spirit  foresight  is  not  the  cunning  calcula- 
tion of  chances,  it  is  rather  the  sacrifice  of  every- 
thing for  Christ.  There  are  two  passages  which 
go  well  together  in  the  Gospels  :  one  is  '  Then 
took  Mary  a  pound  of  spikenard,  very  costly, 
and  anointed  the  feet  of  Jesus ' ;  and  the  other, 
'  In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions  .  .  . 
I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you.' 

According  to  the  mind  of  Jesus,  the  foresight 
which  prepares  one  for  the  future  life  is  a  cer- 
tain attitude  of  soul.  No  person,  it  may  be  as- 
sumed, would  refuse  the  reversion  of  a  blessed 
future,  with  its  high  hopes  of  the  freedom  of 
holiness  and  the  unfettered  service  of  the  Di- 
vine Will,  but  many  persons  are  not  minded  to 
subordinate  its  unseen  excellence  to  the  solid 
possession  of  the  present.  They  have  made 
themselves  so  absolutely  at  home  among  the 


286      THE    MIND    OF   THE    MASTER 

principles  and  rewards  of  a  material  world  that 
they  would  be  out  of  place  amid  the  very  differ- 
ent conditions  and  occupations  of  a  spiritual 
world.  It  is  this  unfitness  that  will  deny  them 
a  habitation.  Certain  persons,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  determined  that  the  physical  shall  not 
fling  its  '  tangling  veil '  so  close  around  their 
hearts  as  to  blind  them  to  the  glory  of  the  Un- 
seen, and  are  prepared  to  use  the  things  which 
are  seen  as  the  stepping-stone  to  the  things 
which  are  eternal.  They  store  within  their 
souls  these  intangible  treasures  of  goodness, 
which  are  wrested  from  the  experiences  of  sacri- 
fice as  pearls  are  from  the  dark  caverns  of  the 
deep.  With  such  gold  they  purchase  their 
home  in  the  Land  of  Promise.  Their  fitness 
will  ensure  their  habitation. 

'  He  who  flagged  not  in  the  earthly  strife, 
From  strength  to  strength  advancing  only  he, 
His  soul  well  knit,  and  all  his  battles  won, 
Mounts  and  that  hardly  to  eternal  life.' 

Jesus  approved  the  man  who  lived  under  the 
power  of  the  Unseen,  who  was  guided  by  a 
resolute,  strenuous  faith,  who  was  determined 
not  to  lose  the  future.  He  had  no  hope  of  easy- 
going, thoughtless,  improvident  persons — the 


THE  FORESIGHT  OF  FAITH        287 

pauper  class — in  the  spiritual  world  :  from  them 
he  expected  no  great  endeavours :  for  them  he 
prophesied  nothing  but  disasters.  The  man 
who  had  forethought  built  his  house  on  the 
rock :  the  man  who  had  none  built  his  on  the 
sand.  The  rock-house  stood,  the  sand-house 
fell.  The  servant  who  played  the  fool  because 
his  master  delayed  his  coming  was  cast  out : 
had  he  persevered  unto  the  end,  he  would  have 
been  accepted.  It  was  the  catastrophe  of  short- 
sightedness :  he  ought  to  have  kept  his  master's 
coming  before  his  eyes.  Five  virgins  are  re- 
solved that  they  will  on  no  account  miss  the 
marriage,  and  make  their  arrangements  at  a  cost 
of  thought.  Five  have  other  things  to  think 
about  besides  the  marriage,  and  do  not  burden 
themselves  with  preparations.  Five  enter  in 
because  for  them  the  Kingdom  of  God  was 
first :  five  remain  outside  because  for  them  it 
was  an  ordinary  matter.  The  wise  virgins  were 
of  the  same  temper  as  Jesus  Himself,  and  so 
they  were  His  friends. 

'  Other-worldliness'  has  been  the  subject  of 
much  satire  in  our  materialistic  day,  and  has 
been  condemned  for  its  enervating  and  crippling 
influence  on  life.  It  is  right,  therefore,  to  re- 


288       THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER 

mind  one's  self  that '  Other-worldliness'  has  two 
forms  and  that  both  are  not  open  to  such 
charges.  One  school  of  piety  has  always  held 
that  the  choice  preparation  for  the  Eternal 
World  is  seclusion  and  devotion,  and  when  the 
Second  Advent  was  confidently  expected,  in 
the  middle  ages,  society  was  disorganised  and 
life  arrested  in  Europe.  Western  Christendom 
was  caught  in  a  spasm  of  repentance,  and  even 
irreligious  people  were  shaken  ;  some  entered 
sacred  houses  ;  some  hid  themselves  in  caves  ; 
some  set  out  for  Palestine  to  meet  the  Lord. 
The  fruits  of  that  brief  emotion  remain  unto 
this  day  in  stately  buildings  and  ecclesiastical 
donations.  Yet  about  that  very  time  some  one 
conceived  a  very  lovely  parable  that  also  re- 
maineth.  How  a  godly  monk  prayed  and  fasted 
and  longed  to  see  Christ.  How  one  day  a  light 
began  to  shine  in  his  lonely  cell,  and  he  waited 
for  the  visible  revelation  of  his  loved  Lord  ;  how 
at  that  very  moment  his  summons  came  to  feed 
the  poor  at  the  convent  gate ;  how  he  obeyed 
the  call  and  gave  out  the  loaves  of  bread  and 
returned  in  sorrow,  for  he  was  sure  that  he 
had  missed  the  condescension  of  the  Lord  ;  and 
how  Christ  was  waiting  for  him,  and  said, 


THE    FORESIGHT    OF    FAITH       289 

'  Hadst  thou  refused  thy  duty,  I  had  left ;  since 
thou  wast  faithful,  I  tarried  to  bless  thee. 
Two  complimentary  chapters  in  '  Other-worldli- 
ness.' 

Charles  V.  of  Spain  was  the  greatest  person- 
age in  the  history  of  his  day — the  heir  of  four 
royal  lines,  ruler  of  Spain,  the  Netherlands, 
Austria  and  Naples,  for  whom  Cortes  had  also 
conquered  the  New  World.  He  led  huge  ar- 
mies, gained  great  victories,  conducted  momen- 
tous affairs,  lived  amid  critical  events.  In  his 
day  the  Ottoman  was  beaten  back  from  the 
frontiers  of  Europe  and  the  Christian  Church 
was  divided.  It  was  in  this  wide  place  Charles 
lived,  amid  these  stirring  circumstances  he 
moved ;  yet  he  was  ever  thinking  of  the  end, 
and  had  resolved,  with  Isabella,  his  loved 
Queen,  to  retire  at  a  certain  time  into  a  holy 
place  and  wait  for  Christ.  The  Master  came 
for  her  before  the  day  arrived,  but  Charles  ab- 
dicated his  throne  and  divested  himself  of 
power  amid  general  sorrow  and  admiration,  and 
gave  his  last  days  to  the  practice  of  religion  in 
the  Monastery  of  Yuste.  Contrast  with  this 
cloistered  piety  the  scene  in  the  American 
Senate-house  during  the  Revolution,  when  at 
T 


290     THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

mid-day  a  great  darkness  fell  and  no  man  could 
see  his  brother's  face.  Even  these  stout  Puri- 
tans were  for  the  moment  dismayed.  Voices 
cried,  '  It  is  the  Day  of  Judgment,'  and  there 
was  some  confusion.  Then  one  of  the  Fathers 
rose  and  said,  '  Whether  it  be  the  Judgment 
Day  or  no,  I  know  not,  but  this  I  know,  that  it 
is  God's  Will  we  save  our  country,  and  we 
shall  be  judged  accordingly.  I  move  that  the 
candles  be  lit  and  that  we  go  on  with  our  bus- 
iness.' Two  schools  of  '  Other-worldliness,' 
and  very  different.  With  the  Catholic  fore- 
sight spelt  devotion — with  the  Puritan,  duty. 

It  is  an  ungenerous  task  to  compare  these 
types  of  piety,  and  one  ought  to  be  grateful 
for  each  in  its  place.  The  Master  is  not  likely 
to  despise  that  delicate  and  reverent  feeling 
which  would  wait  for  His  coming  in  a  secret 
place  and  meet  Him  in  prayer.  Nor  is  it  to 
be  thought  that  He  will  set  any  store  by  the 
mechanical  performance  of  loveless  service  and 
exalt  Judas  with  his  bag  above  Mary  with  her 
spikenard.  Jesus  has  wrought  a  beautiful  har- 
mony, for  in  one  of  His  parables  He  has  taken 
the  most  mystical  form  of  '  Other-worldliness' 
— that  which  watches  for  His  Second  Advent, 


THE    FORESIGHT   OF   FAITH       291 

and  has  laid  on  His  waiting  servant  the  most 
homely  task — to  give  to  the  household  their 
meat  in  due  season.  With  one  touch  of  grace 
He  has  made  duty  a  synonym  for  piety,  and 
has  reconciled  the  inner  and  outer  life.  He 
has  vindicated  the  '  Other-worldliness '  of  the 
Gospels,  for  He  has  made  the  foresight  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  in  its  loftiest  ambition  as 
well  as  its  minutest  calculation,  identical  with 
the  unsparing  and  self-forgetful  service  of  man. 


THE  CONTINUITY   OF   LIFE 


XIV 
THE  CONTINUITY  OF  LIFE 

When  William  Blake,  the  painter-poet,  lay 
dying,  he  said '  he  was  going  to  that  country  he 
had  all  his  life  wished  to  see,'  and  just  before 
he  died  '  he  burst  into  singing  of  the  things  he 
saw.'  It  was  the  passion  of  a  saint,  whose 
heart  had  long  been  lifted  above  the  present 
world  ;  it  was  the  vision  of  a  mystic,  whose 
imagination  had  long  been  exercised  on  the 
world  to  come.  Few  outside  the  Bible  succes- 
sion have  been  inspired  of  the  Holy  Ghost  like 
him  who  wrote  the  Songs  of  Innocence  and  il- 
lustrated the  Epic  of  Job.  But  common  men 
share  in  their  measure  this  instinct  of  the  eternal, 
this  curiosity  of  the  unseen.  One  must  be  af- 
flicted with  spiritual  stupidity  or  cursed  by  in- 
curable frivolity  who  has  never  thought  of  that 
new  state  on  which  he  may  any  day  enter,  nor 
speculated  concerning  its  conditions.  Amid 


296     THE   MIND   OF   THE  MASTER 

the  pauses  of  this  life,  when  the  doors  are  closed 
and  the  traffic  on  the  streets  has  ceased,  our 
thoughts  travel  by  an  irresistible  attraction  to 
the  other  life.  What  like  will  it  be,  and  what 
will  be  its  circumstances?  What  will  be  its 
occupations  and  history  ?  '  God  forgive  me,' 
said  Charles  Kingsley,  facing  death, '  but  I  look 
forward  to  it  with  an  intense  and  reverent 
curiosity.'  He  need  not  have  asked  paidon,  for 
he  was  fulfilling  his  nature. 

One  is  not  astonished  that  this  legitimate 
curiosity  has  created  a  literature,  or  that  its 
books  can  be  divided  into  sheep  and  goats. 
Whenever  any  province  transcends  experience 
and  is  veiled  in  mystery,  it  is  certain  to  be  the 
play  of  the  childish  and  irresponsible  fancy  or 
the  subject  of  elaborate  and  semi-scientific 
/  reasoning.  Were  it  possible  to  place  a  foolscap 
on  one  of  our  most  sublime  ideas,  and  turn  im- 
mortality itself  into  an  absurdity,  it  is  done  when 
a  vulgar  imagination  has  peddled  with  the  de- 
tails of  the  future,  and  has  accomplished  a 
travesty  of  the  Revelation  of  St.  John.  From 
time  to  time  ignorant  charlatans  will  trade  on 
religious  simplicity  and  trifle  with  sacred  emo- 
tions, whose  foolishness  and  profanity  go  before 


THE   CONTINUITY  OF   LIFE       297 

them  unto  judgment.  Heaven  is  the  noblest 
imagination  of  the  human  heart,  and  any  one 
who  robs  this  imagination  of  its  august  dignity 
and  spiritual  splendour  has  committed  a  crime. 
Certain  thoughtful  and  reverent  writers,  on  the 
other  hand,  have  addressed  themselves  to  the 
future  existence  and  its  probable  laws  with  a 
becoming  seriousness  and  modesty.  The  Un- 
seen Universe,  which  was  written  by  two  emi- 
nent scientists,  and  Isaac  Taylor's  Physical 
Theory  of  Another  Life,  are  books  worthy  of  a 
great  subject,  and  a  fit  offering  on  the  altar  of 
Faith.  Within  a  limited  range  science  and 
philosophy  are  welcome  prophets  on  the  unseen, 
but  at  a  point  they  leave  us,  and  we  stand 
alone,  awestruck,  fascinated,  before  the  veil. 
No  one  has  come  from  the  other  side  and  spoken 
with  authority  save  Jesus. 

One  who  believes  in  the  pre-existence  of  our 
Master  approaches  the  Gospels  with  high  ex- 
pectations and  sustains  a  distinct  disappoint- 
ment. Jesus'  attitude  to  the  other  world  is  a 
sustained  contradiction  because  His  life  reveals 
a  radiant  knowledge  and  His  teaching  preserves 
a  rigid  silence.  As  Jesus  moves  through  the 
Gospels,  the  sheen  of  Heaven  is  visible  upon 


298      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

Him.  Above  the  mixed  noises  of  earth  the 
voice  of  the  Eternal  fell  on  His  ear ;  beyond 
the  hostile  circle  of  Pharisees  He  saw  the  joy 
in  the  presence  of  God.  Once  and  again  came 
the  word  from  heaven,  '  This  is  my  Beloved 
Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased,'  and  in  His 
straits  the  angels  ministered  unto  Him.  He 
lived  so  close  to  the  frontier  that  His  garments 
were  once  shot  through  with  light,  and  His  re- 
lations with  the  departed  were  so  intimate  that 
He  spake  with  the  past  leaders  of  Israel  con- 
cerning His  mission.  It  does  not  surprise  one 
that  Jesus  should  suddenly  disappear  any  more 
than  that  a  bubble  should  rise  to  the  surface  of 
water,  or  that  He  ascended  from  the  earth  any 
more  than  that  a  bird  should  open  its  wings 
and  fly.  It  was  not  strange  that  Jesus  should 
pass  into  the  unseen ;  it  was  strange  that  He 
should  appear  in  the  seen. 

Jesus  had  established  in  His  own  Person  that 
communication  which  ancient  ages  had  desired, 
and  modern  science  is  labouring  to  attain.  One 
may  be  pardoned  for  anticipating  some  amaz- 
ing results — a  more  complete  apocalypse.  What 
unsuspected  applications  of  natural  law,  what 
new  revelations  of  spiritual  knowledge,  what  im- 


THE   CONTINUITY   OF   LIFE       299 

mense  reaches  of  Divine  service,  what  boundless 
possibilities  of  life,  might  not  Jesus  have  re- 
vealed in  the  sphere  of  the  unseen.  We  search 
in  vain  for  these  open  mysteries — this  lifting  of 
the  veil  from  the  occult.  Whatever  Jesus  may 
have  seen,  and  whatever  He  may  have  known, 
were  locked  in  His  breast, 

'  .     .     .     or  something  sealed 
The  lips  of  that  Evangelist.' 

No  believer  in  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus  can 
affect  indifference  to  this  silence ;  every  one 
must  desire  some  relief  from  its  pressure. 
Most  likely  Jesus  recognised  that  frequent 
references  to  the  circumstances  of  the  unseen 
world  would  have  obscured  one  of  the  chief 
points  in  His  teaching.  He  was  ever  insisting 
that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was  no  distant 
colony  in  the  clouds,  but  an  institution  set  up 
in  this  present  world.  He  was  ever  hindered 
by  the  gross  conceptions  of  the  Jews,  who 
could  not  compass  any  other  Utopia  than  a 
conquering  Messiah  and  a  visible  Theocracy. 
It  was  hard  enough  to  cleanse  the  sight  of  His 
disciples  from  a  religious  imperialism,  and  to 
possess  them  with  a  vision  of  a  spiritual  society. 


300      THE  MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

Had  He  once  excited  their  imagination  with  an 
apocalypse  of  gold,  then  they  had  never  grasp- 
ed the  fact  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  within, 
and  they  had  been  quite  unsettled  for  the 
labour  of  its  establishment.  They  must  under- 
stand with  all  their  hearts  that  where  Jesus  and 
the  men  of  His  Spirit  were  the  Kingdom  stood, 
whether  in  some  obscure  village  of  Galilee  or 
in  the  many  mansions  of  His  Father's  house. 
There  are  moods  in  which  we  should  have  liked 
a  chapter  on  heaven  from  Jesus,  in  our  wiser 
moments  we  see  it  would  have  been  premature. 
When  the  Kingdom  had  been  fafrly  founded  on 
earth  an  apocalypse  of  glory  would  be  a  re-en- 
forcement of  hope.  While  the  Kingdom  was 
only  an  ideal  it '  had  been  the  destruction  of 
faith. 

Jesus  broke  His  reserve  on  the  last  night  of 
the  three  years'  fellowship,  when  He  was  about 
to  depart  from  His  disciples'  sight  by  the  way 
of  the  Cross,  and  they  would  be  left  to  face  the 
world  in  His  name.  They  had  come  together 
to  the  veil,  and  before  He  passed  within, 
through  His  rent  body,  He  must  give  His 
friends  an  assurance  of  the  unseen  that  their 
hearts  may  not  be  troubled.  As  often  as  He 


THE  CONTINUITY   OF   LIFE        301 

had  spoken  of  the  Ageless  Life,  He  had  touch- 
ed on  the  life  to  come,  now  He  gave  His  soli- 
tary deliverance  on  the  sphere  of  that  life,  and 
the  form  is  characteristic  of  the  Master.  There 
could  never  be  competition  or  comparison  be- 
tween Jesus  and  St.  John  ;  the  magnificence  of 
the  apocalypse  fades  before  one  simple  word  of 
the  last  discourse.  Jesus  utilises  the  great  par- 
able of  the  Family  for  the  last  time ;  and  as 
He  had  invested  Fatherhood  and  Sonhood  with 
their  highest  meaning  so  He  now  spiritualises 
Home.  What  Mary's  cottage  at  Bethany  had 
been  to  the  little  company  during  the  Holy 
Week,  with  its  quiet  rest  after  the  daily  turmoil 
of  Jerusalem  ;  what  some  humble  house  on  the 
shore  of  Galilee  was  to  St.  John,  with  its  associ- 
ations of  Salome ;  what  the  great  Temple  was 
to  the  pious  Jews,  with  its  Presence  of  the 
Eternal,  that  on  the  higher  scale  was  Heaven. 
Jesus  availed  Himself  of  a  wealth  of  tender 
recollections  and  placed  Heaven  in  the  heart 
of  humanity  when  He  said,  '  My  Father's 
House.' 

It  is,  however,  one  thing  to  be  silent  about 
the  circumstances  of  the  future  and  another  to 
be  silent  about  its  nature.  The  reticence  of 


302       THE   MIND  OF   THE   MASTER 

Jesus  about  the  next  world  has  an  ample  com- 
pensation in  His  suggestions  regarding  the  next 
life.  Jesus  was  not  indifferent  to  surround- 
ings— He  was  grateful  for  the  home  at  Beth- 
any ;  Jesus  was  chiefly  concerned  about  life — 
He  counted  it  of  the  last  importance  to  give  a 
right  direction  to  life.  During  all  His  ministry 
Jesus  was  fighting  ideas  of  life  which  were  false, 
not  so  much  because  they  were  wicked  as  be- 
cause they  were  temporary.  He  was  insisting 
on  ideals  of  life  which  were  true,  not  only 
because  they  were  good  but  because  they  were 
eternal.  His  conception  of  life  was  open  to 
criticism  just  because  it  was  so  independent  of 
time  and  space.  It  was  not  national,  it  was 
human ;  it  was  not  for  His  day,  but  for  ever. 
You  are  impressed  by  the  perspective  in  Jesus' 
teaching,  the  sense  of  beyond,  and  it  is  always 
spiritual.  Neither  this  world  in  its  poverty  nor 
the  next  in  its  wealth  is  to  be  compared  with 
life,  any  more  than  a  body  with  a  soul.  The 
great  loss  of  the  present  is  to  exchange  your 
life  for  this  world,  the  great  gain  in  the  world 
to  come  is  still  to  obtain  life.  The  point  of 
connection  between  the  seen  and  the  unseen — 
the  only  bridge  that  spans  the  gulf — is  life.  In 


THE   CONTINUITY   OF   LIFE       303 

this  state  of  things  we  settle  its  direction,  in 
the  next  we  shall  see  its  perfection.  According 
to  the  drift  of  Jesus'  preaching,  the  whole 
spiritual  content  of  this  present  life,  its  knowl- 
edge, skill,  aspirations,  character,  will  be  carried 
over  into  the  future,  and  life  hereafter  be  the 
continuation  of  life  here. 

This  assumption  underlies  Jesus'  words  at 
every  turn,  and  comes  to  the  surface  in  the 
parables  of  Service  and  Reward.  They  imply 
the  continuity  of  life :  they  illuminate  its  con- 
ditions. The  Master  commits  five  talents  to 
the  servant,  and  the  trust  is  shrewdly  managed. 
The  five  become  ten,  and  the  Master  is  fully 
satisfied.  What  reward  does  He  propose  for 
His  servant  ?  Is  it  release  from  labour  and  re- 
sponsibility— a  future  in  contrast  with  the 
past  ?  Is  it,  so  to  say,  retirement  and  a  pen- 
sion ?  It  would  not  be  absurd,  but  it  would  be 
less  than  the  best.  Something  more  could 
surely  be  done  with  this  man's  exercised  and 
developed  gifts — his  foresight,  prudence,  cour- 
age, enterprise.  The  past  shapes  the  future, 
and  this  servant,  having  served  his  apprentice- 
ship, becomes  himself  a  master,  '  ruler  over 
many  things.'  So  he  entered  into  the  joy  of 


304      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

his  Lord,  and  the  joy  for  which  Jesus  endured 
the  Cross  is  a  patient  and  perpetual  ministry. 
Life  will  be  raised,  not  reversed ;  work  will  not 
be  closed,  it  will  be  emancipated.  The  fret 
will  be  gone,  not  the  labour ;  the  disappoint- 
ment, not  the  responsibility.  Our  disability 
shall  be  no  more ;  our  capacity  shall  be  ours 
for  ever,  and  so  the  thorns  shall  be  taken  from 
our  crown. 

This  conception  of  the  future  as  a  con*'  ua- 
tion  under  new  and  unimaginable  forms  of 
present  energy,  has  hardly  been  allowed  full 
play.  The  religious  mind  has  been  dominated 
by  a  conventional  idea  which  is  taught  to  our 
children,  which  is  assumed  in  conversation  : 
which  is  implied  in  sermons,  which  inspires  our 
hymnology  on  the  '  Last  Things.'  Heaven  is 
a  state  of  physical  rest — a  release  from  care, 
labour,  struggle,  progress,  which  more  thought- 
ful people  represent  to  themselves  as  an  end- 
less contemplation  of  God,  and  less  thoughtful 
reduce  to  an  endless  service  of  praise.  We  ful- 
fil the  Divine  Will  here  in  occupation,  there  we 
shall  fulfil  it  in  adoration.  We  shall  leave  the 
market-place  with  its  arduous,  yet  kindly  busi- 
ness, and  enter  a  church  where  night  and  day 


THE   CONTINUITY   OF    LIFE      305 

the  ceaseless  anthem  swells  up  to  the  roof. 
Upon  this  heaven  the  mystics,  from  St.  John 
to  Faber,  have  lavished  a  wealth  of  poetry, 
which  we  all  admire  and  sing,  and  this  is  its 
sum  : — 

'  Father  of  Jesus,  love's  reward, 

What  rapture  will  it  be 
Prostrate  before  Thy  throne  to  lie 
And  gaze  and  gaze  on  Thee. ' 

It  is  the  Christian  Nirvana. 

If  this  Paradise  of  inaction  be  the  true  idea 
of  Heaven,  then  it  invites  serious  criticism. 
For  one  thing,  it  can  have  only  a  lukewarm  at- 
traction for  average  people  (who  are  the  enor- 
mous majority  of  the  race),  and  may  be  repug- 
nant to  those  who  are  neither  unbelieving  nor 
evil-living.  Cloistered  piety  may  long  for  this 
kind  of  life  as  the  apotheosis  of  the  monastic 
ideal,  but  all  God's  children  are  not  cast  in  the 
mould  of  A  Kempis.  What,  for  instance,  can 
an  English  merchant,  a  respectable,  clean-liv- 
ing, and  fairly  intelligent  man,  we  shall  sup- 
pose, think  of  the  conventional  Heaven  ?  He 
will  not  tell  any  one,  because  a  sensible  man 
rarely  gives  confidences  on  religion,  and  he 
may  feel  it  wise  to  crush  down  various 
U 


306      THE    MIND    OF    THE    MASTER 

thoughts.  But  one  has  a  strong  sense  of  in- 
congruity between  the  life  he  lives  here  and 
the  life  it  is  supposed  he  will  live  hereafter,  and 
this  without  reflection  on  his  present  useful 
and  honourable  way  of  living.  One  imagines 
how  he  will  miss  his  office,  and  his  transactions, 
and  his  plans,  and  his  strokes  of  success,  not 
because  he  has  lost  the  machinery  for  making 
money,  but  because  he  misses  the  sphere  for 
his  strongest  powers — his  shrewdness,  persever- 
ance, enterprise,  integrity.  It  were  ludicrous 
to  suggest  that  this  excellent  man,  even  in  his 
old  age,  longs  for  death  as  the  passage  to  that 
new  world  where  he  may  begin  life  afresh,  or 
that  he  wishes  to  be  set  free  from  the  duties  of 
this  world  that  he  may  give  himself,  without 
hindrance,  to  the  exercises  of  devotion.  If  he 
were  to  tell  you  so,  you  would  detect  the  un- 
reality, but  in  justice  to  this  type,  he  does  not 
cant  when  death  comes  to  his  door.  He  will 
brace  himself,  as  a  brave  and  modest  man,  to 
face  the  inevitable,  and  will  resign  himself  to 
Heaven,  as  one  does  to  a  great  function  from 
which  exclusion  would  be  a  social  disgrace,  to 
which  admission  is  a  joyless  honour.  Certainly 
this  man  is  not  a  St.  John,  but  it  does  not  fol- 


THE   CONTINUITY   OF    LIFE      307 

low  that  he  is  quite  hopeless.  The  conven- 
tional heaven  is  antipathetic  to  him  not  be- 
cause he  is  unspiritual  but  because  he  is 
natural. 

It  must  also  strike  one  that  an  office  of  devo- 
tion would  be  an  inept  and  disappointing  con- 
clusion to  the  present  life.  For  what  purpose 
are  we  placed  and  kept  in  this  world  ?  Faith 
answers,  in  order  that  we  may  be  educated  for 
the  life  to  come  :  this  is  how  Faith  solves  the 
perplexing  problem  of  the  life  which  now  is. 
Providence  endows  a  person  with  some  natural 
gift,  arranges  that  this  gift  be  developed,  affords 
it  a  field  of  exercise,  trains  it  within  sight  of 
perfection.  There  is  something  which  this 
person  can  do  better  than  his  fellows,  and  that 
is  his  capital  for  future  enterprise.  Two  pos- 
sessions we  shall  carry  with  us  into  the  unseen : 
they  are  free  of  death,  and  inalienable — one  is 
character,  the  other  is  capacity.  Is  this  capacity 
to  be  consigned  to  idleness  and  wantonly 
wasted?  It  were  unreason:  it  were  almost  a 
crime.  How  this  or  that  gift  can  be  utilised  in 
the  other  world  is  a  vain  question,  and  leads  to 
childish  speculation.  We  do  not  know  where 
the  unseen  universe  is,  nor  how  it  is  constituted, 


308      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

much  less  how  it  is  ordered,  but  our  reason  may 
safely  conclude  that  the  capacity  which  is 
exercised  under  one  form  here  will  be  exercised 
under  another  yonder.  '  It  is  surely  a  frivo- 
lous notion,'  says  Isaac  Taylor,  that  the  vast 
and  intricate  machinery  of  the  universe,  and 
the  profound  scheme  of  God's  government, 
are  now  to  reach  a  resting  place,  where  nothing 
more  shall  remain  to  active  spirits  through  an 
eternity  but  recollections  of  labour,  anthems  of 
praise,  and  inert  repose.' 

This  uninviting  Heaven  owes  its  imagination 
to  two  causes — the  tradition  of  asceticism  and 
an  abuse  of  the  Apocalypse.  Fantastic  ideas  of 
religion,  which  were  reared  under  monastic 
glass,  have  been  acclimatised  in  certain  schools, 
whose  favoured  doctrines  have  no  analogy  in 
life,  and  whose  cherished  ideals  make  no  appeal 
to  the  heart.  Sensible  people  agree  that  char- 
acter is  the  pledge  of  goodness,  and  that  work 
is  a  condition  of  happiness,  and  that  a  sphere 
where  good  men  could  do  their  work  without 
weariness  in  the  light  of  God's  face  would  be 
an  ideal  heaven,  but  sensible  people  are  apt  to 
be  brow-beaten  by  traditions  and  to  say  what  is 
not  real.  Unfortunately  a  really  preposterous 


THE   CONTINUITY   OF   LIFE       309 

Paradise  has  been  also  credited  with  the  glory 
of  St.  John's  new  Jerusalem,  which  cometh 
down  '  from  God  ...  as  a  bride  adorned  for 
her  husband/  whose  foundations  were  '  gar- 
nished with  all  manner  of  precious  stones/  whose 
street  was  '  pure  gold,  as  it  were  transparent 
glass/  This  is  the  vision  of  a  Jewish  mystic, 
very  splendid  poetry  to  be  read  for  the  sound 
and  beauty  thereof,  and  they  are  not  to  be 
lightly  forgiven  who  have  reduced  it  to  bathos 
in  certain  pictures  and  books.  St.  John  imag- 
ined the  kingdom  of  Jesus  in  its  glory  moving 
like  a  stately  harmony  before  the  eyes  of  God, 
and  cast  his  imagination  into  the  ancient 
symbols  of  Jewish  literature.  He  intended  the 
age  of  gold. 

Any  view  of  the  future  may  be  fairly  tried  by 
this  criterion — does  it  strengthen,  gladden, 
inspire  us  in  the  present?  Whenever  this 
question  is  put,  we  turn  to  Jesus  with  His 
doctrine  of  continuity.  Where  the  traditional 
forecast  fails  is  in  the  absence  of  Hope.  It 
takes  all  purpose  from  our  present  effort,  whose 
hard-won  gains  in  service  are  to  be  flung  away. 
It  takes  all  opportunity  from  the  future,  which 
is  to  be  a  state  of  practical  inertia.  It  is  the 


3io      THE  MIND    OF    THE  MASTER 

depreciation  of  the  market-place,  the  workshop, 
the  study ;  it  is  the  vindication  of  a  Trappist 
monastery.  Where  the  forecast  of  Jesus  tells 
is  in  the  spirit  of  Hope ;  it  invests  the  most 
trivial  or  sordid  details  of  this  life  with  signifi- 
cance, changing  them  into  the  elementary  ex- 
ercises of  a  great  science ;  it  points  to  the 
future  as  the  heights  of  life  to  which  we  are 
climbing  out  of  this  narrow  valley.  One  of  the 
most  pathetic  sights  in  this  life  is  to  see  a  dying 
man  struggling  to  the  last  in  his  calling,  putting 
another  touch  to  his  unfinished  picture,  adding 
another  page  to  his  half-written  book.  '  Art  is 
long ;  life  is  short '  comes  to  our  mind,  but  how 
stands  the  case?  If  the  monkish  heaven  be 
true,  then  this  foolish  mortal  had  better  be 
done  with  art  or  letters,  for  they  can  have  no 
place  in  the  land  to  which  he  hasteth.  If  Jesus' 
heaven  be  true,  then  he  is  bound  to  gather  the 
last  penny  of  interest  on  his  talents,  and  make 
himself  fit  for  his  new  work.  Jesus  heartens 
His  followers  by  an  assurance  that  not  one  hour 
of  labour,  not  one  grain  of  attainment,  not  one 
honest  effort  on  to  the  moment  when  the  tools 
of  earth  drop  from  their  hands,  but  will  tell  on 
the  after  life.  Again,  one  is  tempted  to  quote 


THE   CONTINUITY   OF   LIFE       311 

the  sagacious  Taylor  :  '  All  the  practical  skill 
we  acquire  in  managing  affairs,  all  the  versatility, 
the  sagacity,  the  calculation  of  chances,  the 
patience  and  assiduity,  the  promptitude  and 
facility,  as  well  as  the  highest  virtues,  which 
we  are  learning  every  day,  may  well  find  scope 
in  a  world  such  as  is  rationally  anticipated 
when  we  think  of  heaven  as  the  stage  of 
life  which  is  next  to  follow  the  discipline  of 
life.' 

It  follows  upon  Jesus'  suggestion  of  the  next 
life, — the  continuation  of  the  present  on  a 
higher  level, — that  it  will  be  itself  a  continual 
progress,  and  Jesus  gives  us  frequent  hints  of 
this  law.  When  He  referred  to  the  many  man- 
sions in  His  Father's  house,  He  may  have  been 
intending  rooms — places  where  those  who  had 
been  associated  together  on  earth  may  be 
gathered  together ;  but  He  may  be  rather  in- 
tending stations — stages  in  that  long  ascent  of 
life  that  shall  extend  through  the  ages  of  ages. 
In  the  parable  of  the  unjust  steward  Jesus  uses 
this  expression  in  speaking  of  the  future,  '  ever- 
lasting tents.'  It  is  at  once  a  contradiction  and 
an  explanation,  for  it  combines  the  ideas  of  rest 
and  advance — a  life  of  achievement,  where  the 


312     THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

tent  is  pitched,  a  life  of  possibilities,  where  it  is 
being  for  ever  lifted. 

'  Will  the  future  life  be  work, 

Where  the  strong  and  the  weak,  this  world's  congeries, 
Repeat  in  large  what  they  practised  in  small, 
Through  life  after  life  in  unlimited  series, 
Only  the  scales  be  changed,  that's  all  ? ' 

Does  not  this  conception  of  the  future  solve 
a  very  dark  problem — the  lives  that  have  never 
arrived.  Beside  the  man  whose  gifts  have  been 
laid  out  at  usury  and  gained  a  splendid  interest, 
are  others  whose  talents  have  been  hid,  not  by 
their  own  doing,  but  by  Providence.  They  real- 
ised their  gift ;  they  cherished  it ;  they  would 
have  used  it  ;  but  for  them  there  was  no 
market.  Providence,  who  gave  them  wings, 
placed  them  in  a  cage.  Round  us  on  every  side 
are  cramped,  hindered,  still-born  lives — mer- 
chants who  should  have  been  painters,  clerks 
who  should  have  been  poets,  labourers  who 
should  have  been  philosophers.  Their  talent  is 
known  to  a  few  friends  ;  they  die,  and  the  talent 
is  buried  in  their  coffin.  Jesus  says  No.  It  has 
at  last  been  sown  for  the  harvest ;  it  will  come 
into  the  open  and  blossom  in  another  land. 
These  also  are  being  trained — trained  by  wait- 


THE   CONTINUITY   OF   LIFE        313 

ing.     They  are  the  reserve  of  the  race,  kept  be- 
hind the  hill  till  God  requires  it.     They  will  get 
their  chance  ;  they  will  come  into  their  kingdom, 
'  Where  the  days  bury  their  golden  suns 
In  the  dear  hopeful  West.' 

The  continuity  of  life  lifts  the  shadow  also 
from  another  mystery — the  lives  that  have  been 
cut  off  in  their  prime.  When  one  is  richly  en- 
dowed and  carefully  trained,  and  has  come  to 
the  zenith  of  his  power,  his  sudden  removal 
seems  a  reflection  on  the  economy  of  God's 
kingdom.  Why  call  this  man  to  the  choir 
celestial  when  he  is  so  much  needed  in  active 
service?  According  to  Jesus,  he  has  not  sunk 
into  inaction,  so  much  subtracted  from  the 
forces  of  righteousness.  He  has  gone  where 
the  fetters  of  this  body  of  humiliation  and  em- 
barrassment of  adverse  circumstances  shall  be 
no  longer  felt.  We  must  not  think  of  him  as 
withdrawn  from  the  field ;  we  must  imagine 
him  as  in  the  van  of  battle.  We  must  follow 
him,  our  friend,  with  hope  and  a  high  heart. 

'  No,  at  noon-day,  in  the  bustle  of  man's  worktime, 
Greet  the  unseen  with  a  cheer  ; 

Bid  him  forward  breast  and  back  as  either  should  be, 
"  Strive  and  thrive,"  cry  "speed,  fight  on,  fare  ever 
There  as  here  ! "  ' 


THE   KINGDOM    OF  GOD 


XV 
THE   KINGDOM   OF   GOD 

There  are  times  when  one  wishes  he  had 
never  read  the  New  Testament  Scriptures— 
that  he  might  some  day  open  St.  Luke's  Gos- 
pel, and  the  most  beautiful  book  in  the  world 
might  come  upon  his  soul  like  sunrise.  It  is  a 
doubtful  fortune  to  be  born  in  Athens  and 
every  day  to  see  the  Parthenon  against  the  vio- 
let sky :  better  to  make  a  single  pilgrimage  and 
carry  forever  the  vision  of  beauty  in  your 
heart.  Devout  Christians  must  be  haunted  by 
the  fear  that  Jesus'  sublime  words  may  have 
lost  their  heavenliness  through  our  familiarity, 
or  that  they  may  have  been  overlaid  by  our 
conventional  interpretations.  This  misgiving 
is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  from  time  to  time 
a  fresh  discovery  is  made  in  Jesus'  teaching. 
As  a  stranger,  unfettered  by  tradition,  will  de- 
tect in  a  private  gallery  some  masterpiece  gen- 


3i8     THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

erations  have  overlooked,  so  an  unbiassed 
mind  will  rescue  from  neglecting  ages  some 
idea  of  the  Master.  Two  finds  have  been  made 
within  recent  years :  the  Divine  Fatherhood 
and  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

If  any  one  will  take  the  three  Gospels  and 
read  them  with  an  open  ear,  he  will  be  amazed 
by  the  continual  recurrence  of  this  phrase,  the 
'  Kingdom  of  God  '  or  '  Heaven.'  Jesus  is  ever 
preaching  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  explaining 
it  in  parables  and  images  of  exquisite  simplic- 
ity. He  exhorts  men  to  make  any  sacrifice  that 
they  may  enter  the  Kingdom  of  God.  He 
warns  certain  that  they  must  not  look  back  lest 
they  should  not  be  fit  for  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
He  declares  that  it  is  not  possible  for  others  to 
enter  the  Kingdom  of  God.  He  encourages 
some  one  because  he  is  not  far  from  the  King- 
dom of  God.  He  gives  to  His  chief  Apostle 
the  keys  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  He 
rates  the  Pharisees  because  they  shut  up  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  against  men.  He  com- 
forts the  poor  because  theirs  is  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven ;  and  He  invites  the  nations  to  sit 
down  with  Abraham  in  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  The  Kingdom  was  in  His  thought 


THE   KINGDOM   OF   GOD  319 

the  chiefest  good  of  the  soul  and  the  hope  of 
the  world. 

'  One  far-off  divine  event 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves.' 

Eveiy  prophet  of  the  first  order  has  his  own 
message  and  it  crystalises  into  a  favourite  idea. 
With  Moses  the  ruling  idea  was  law ;  with 
Confucius,  it  was  morality ;  with  Buddha,  it 
was  Renunciation ;  with  Mohammed,  it  was 
God ;  with  Socrates,  it  was  the  Soul.  With 
the  Master,  it  was  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The 
idea  owed  its  origin  to  the  Theocracy,  its  in- 
spiration to  Isaiah,  its  form  to  Daniel,  its  popu- 
larity to  John  Baptist.  When  the  forerunner's 
voice  was  stifled  in  the  dungeon  of  Herod, 
Jesus  caught  up  his  word  and  preached  the 
Utopia  of  John  with  a  wider  vision  and 
sweeter  note.  The  hereditary  dream  of  the 
Jew  passed  through  the  soul  of  Jesus  and  was 
transformed.  The  local  widened  into  the  uni- 
versal ;  the  material  was  raised  to  the  spiritual. 
A  Jewish  state  with  Jerusalem  for  its  capital, 
and  a  greater  David  for  its  king,  changed  at 
the  touch  of  Jesus  into  a  moral  kingdom  whose 
throne  should  be  in  the  heart  and  its  borders 
conterminous  with  the  race.  The  largeness  of 


320     THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

Jesus'  mind  is  its  glory  and  its  misfortune. 
The  magnificent  conception  was  refused  by  his 
countrymen  because  their  God  was  a  national 
Deity ;  it  has  been  too  often  reduced  by  His 
disciples  because  they  have  no  horizon.  They 
have  been  apt  to  think  that  Christianity  is  an 
extremely  clever  scheme  by  which  a  limited 
number  of  souls  will  secure  Heaven — a  rocket 
apparatus  for  a  shipwrecked  crew.  Perhaps 
therefore  outside  people  should  be  excused  for 
speaking  of  Christianity  as  a  system  of  the 
higher  selfishness,  because  they  have  some 
grounds  for  their  misunderstanding.  Every 
one  ought  to  read  Jesus'  own  words  and  he 
would  find  that  Jesus  did  not  live  and  die  to 
afford  select  Pharisees  an  immunity  from  the 
burden  of  their  fellow-men,  but  to  found  a 
Kingdom  that  would  be  the  salvation  of  the 
world. 

It  has  been  a  calamity  that  for  long  Christians 
paid  hardly  any  attention  to  the  idea  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Jesus  on  which  He  was  always  in- 
sisting, and  gave  their  whole  mind  to  the  en- 
tirely different  idea  of  the  Church,  which  Jesus 
only  mentioned  once  with  intention  in  a  pas- 
sage of  immense  difficulty.  The  Kingdom- 


THE   KINGDOM   OF   GOD  321 

idea  flourishes  in  every  corner  of  the  three 
Gospels,  and  languishes  in  the  Acts  and  Epis- 
tles, while  the  Church-idea  is  practically  non- 
existent in  Jesus'  sermons,  but  saturates  the 
letters  of  St.  Paul.  This  means  that  the  idea 
which  unites  has  been  forgotten,  the  idea  which 
separates  has  been  magnified.  With  all  respect 
to  the  ablest  Apostle  of  Jesus,  one  may  be  al- 
lowed to  express  his  regret  that  St.  Paul  had 
not  said  less  about  the  Church  and  more  about 
the  Kingdom.  One  gratefully  acknowledges 
St.  Paul's  own  mystical  idea  of  the  Church,  also 
one  knows  why  the  Church  has  a  stronger  fas- 
cination for  the  ordinary  religious  person  than 
the  Kingdom.  With  him  the  Church  is  a 
visible  and  exclusive  institution  which  men  can 
manage  and  use.  The  Kingdom  is  a  spiritual 
and  inclusive  society  whose  members  are  se- 
lected by  natural  fitness  and  which  is  beyond 
human  control.  One  must  affirm  this  or  that 
to  be  a  member  of  the  Church  ;  one  must  be 
something  to  be  a  part  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
Every  person  who  is  like  Christ  in  character,  or 
is  of  His  mind,  is  included  in  the  Kingdom. 
No  natural  reading  of  Church  can  include 
Plato:  no  natural  reading  of  Kingdom  can 
X 


322      THE   MIND    OF  THE   MASTER 

exclude  him.  The  effect  of  the  two  institu- 
tions upon  the  world  is  a  contrast.  The  char- 
acteristic product  of  the  Church  is  ecclesiastics  ; 
the  characteristic  product  of  the  Kingdom  is 
philanthropists. 

Jesus'  Kingdom  commends  itself  to  the 
imagination  because  it  is  to  come,  when  God's 
will  is  done  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven — it 
is  the  Kingdom  of  the  Beatitudes.  It  com- 
mends itself  to  the  reason  because  it  has  come 
wherever  any  one  is  attempting  God's  will — it 
is  the  Kingdom  of  the  Parables.  An  ideal 
state,  it  ever  allures  and  inspires  its  subjects ; 
a  real  state,  it  sustains,  commands  them.  Had 
Jesus  conceived  His  Kingdom  as  in  the  future 
only,  He  had  made  His  disciples  dreamers ; 
had  He  centred  it  in  the  present  only,  He  had 
made  them  theorists.  As  it  is,  one  labours  on 
its  building  with  a  splendid  model  before  his 
eyes ;  one  possesses  it  in  his  heart,  and  yet  is 
ever  entering  into  its  fulness.  When  Jesus  sat 
down  with  the  twelve  in  the  upper  room,  the 
Kingdom  of  God  had  come  ;  when  the  Son  of 
Man  shall  be  seen  '  coming  in  a  cloud  with 
power  and  great  glory '  it  shall  be  '  nigh  at 
hand.'  As  Jesus  came  once  and  ever  cometh, 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD  323 

so  His  Kingdom  is  a  present  fact  and  an  endless 
hope. 

Jesus  commands  attention  and  respect  at 
once  when  He  insisted  on  a  present  Kingdom. 
It  was  not  going  to  be,  it  was  now  and  here. 
That  very  day  a  man  could  see,  could  enter, 
could  possess,  could  serve  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  Jesus  did  not  despise  this  world  in  which 
we  live  nor  despair  of  human  society  to  which 
we  belong.  He  did  not  discount  earth  in 
favour  of  heaven  nor  make  the  life  which  now 
is  a  mere  passage  to  rest.  He  deliberately 
founded  His  Kingdom  in  this  world,  and  antici- 
pated it  would  run  its  course  amid  present  cir- 
cumstances. If  you  had  pointed  to  rival  forces 
and  opposing  interests,  Jesus  accepted  the  risk. 
If  sin  and  selfishness  had  their  very  seat  here, 
then  the  more  need  for  the  counteraction  of 
the  Kingdom.  In  fact,  if  there  is  to  be  a  king- 
dom of  God  anywhere,  it  must  be  in  this 
world ;  and  if  it  be  impossible  here  where 
Jesus  died,  it  will  be  impossible  in  Mars  or 
anywhere.  When  Jesus  said  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  be  sure  He  did  not  mean  an  unseen 
refuge  whither  a  handful  might  one  day  escape 
like  persecuted  and  disheartened  Puritans  flee- 


324      THE   MIND    OF   THE   MASTER 

ing  from  a  hopeless  England,  but  He  intended 
what  might  be  and  then  was  in  Galilee,  what 
should  be  and  now  is  in  England.  '  To  those 
who  speak  to  you  of  heaven  and  seek  to  sepa- 
rate it  from  earth/  wrote  Mazzini,  'you  will 
say  that  heaven  and  earth  are  one  even  as  the 
way  and  the  goal  are  one.'  And  he  used  also 
to  say,  and  his  words  are  coming  true  before 
our  eyes,  '  The  first  real  faith  that  shall  arise 
upon  the  ruins  of  the  old  worn-out  creeds  will 
transform  the  whole  of  our  actual  social  organi- 
sation, because  the  whole  history  of  humanity 
is  but  the  repetition  in  form  and  degree  of  the 
Christian  prayer,  "  Thy  kingdom  come :  Thy 
will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven." 

Jesus'  next  point  is  that  the  Kingdom  con- 
sists of  regenerate  individuals,  and  therefore 
He  was  always  trying  to  create  character. 
This  is  the  salient  difference  between  Jesus  and 
the  Jewish  reformers  and  all  reformers.  The 
reformer,  who  has  his  own  function  and  is  to 
be  heartily  commended,  approaches  humanity 
from  the  outside  and  proceeds  by  machinery  ; 
Jesus  approaches  humanity  from  the  inside 
and  proceeds  by  influence.  No  one  can  ask  a 
question  without  at  the  same  time  revealing 


THE   KINGDOM  OF   GOD  325 

his  mind  ;  and  so  when  the  Pharisees  demanded 
of  Jesus  when  the  Kingdom  of  God  should 
come,  one  understands  what  was  their  method 
of  social  reformation.  The  new  state  of  things 
which  they  called  the  Kingdom  of  God — and 
no  better  name  for  Utopia  has  ever  been 
found — was  to  come  with  observation.  It  was 
to  be  a  sudden  demonstration,  and  behold  the 
golden  age  has  begun.  What  they  exactly 
meant  was  the  arrival  of  a  viceroy  from  God 
endowed  with  supernatural  power  and  author- 
ity. Till  He  came,  patriotism  could  do  noth- 
ing ;  when  He  came,  patriotism  would  simply 
obey,  and  in  a  day  the  hopes  of  the  saints 
would  be  realised  and  the  promises  of  the 
prophets  fulfilled.  At  one  blow  the  Roman 
grip  would  be  loosened  from  the  throat  of  the 
Jewish  nation  ;  the  grinding  bondage  of  taxa- 
tion swept  away ;  the  insolent  license  of  Her- 
od's court  ended ;  the  pride  of  the  priestly 
aristocracy  reduced,  and  the  gross  abuses  of  the 
temple  worship  redressed.  When  the  Messiah 
came,  they  would  see  the  ideal  of  patriotism 
in  all  ages  :  '  A  Free  State  and  a  Free  Church.' 
It  was  a  splendid  dream,  the  idea  of  a  ready- 
made  commonwealth,  that  has  touched  in  turn 


326      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

and  glorified  Savonarola  and  Sir  Thomas  More, 
Scottish  Covenanters  and  English  Puritans, 
and  inspired  the  noblest  minds  in  Greece.  It 
is  that  society  can  be  regenerated  from  without 
and  in  the  mass !  It  is  regeneration  by  machin- 
ery— very  magnificent  machinery  no  doubt, 
but  still  machinery. 

Jesus  believed  that  if  the  Kingdom  of  God 
is  to  come  at  all,  it  must  be  by  another  meth- 
od, and  it  was  the  perpetual  exposition  of  His 
method  that  brought  Him  into  collision  with 
the  Pharisees.  He  knew  that  the  Messiah  for 
the  Jews  must  not  be  a  supernatural  Roman 
emperor  or  a  Deus  ex  machind,  doing  for  men 
what  they  would  not  do  for  themselves.  This 
Messiah  was  a  moral  impossibility  and  this 
paternal  Government  would  be  useless.  The 
true  Messiah  was  a  Saviour  who  would  hold  up 
a  personal  ideal  and  stimulate  men  to  fulfil  it. 
What  was  any  nation  but  three  measures  of 
meal  to  be  leavened ;  you  must  leaven  it  parti- 
cle by  particle  till  it  be  all  changed.  Instead 
of  looking  hither  and  thither  for  the  Kingdom 
of  God  it  would  be  better  to  look  for  it  in 
men's  own  hearts  and  lives.  The  Pharisees 
prated  about  being  free,  meaning  they  had  cer- 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD  327 

tain  political  privileges;  but  Jesus  told  them 
that  the  highest  liberty  was  freedom  from  sin. 
Did  a  Pharisee — and  the  Pharisee  with  all  his 
faults  was  the  patriot  of  his  day — desire  to  bet- 
ter his  nation  ;  then  let  him  begin  by  bettering 
himself.  When  the  Pharisees  learned  humility 
and  sympathy,  the  golden  age  would  not  be 
far  distant  from  Jewry.  Jesus'  perpetual  sug- 
gestion to  the  patriotic  class  of  His  day  was 

that  they  should  turn  from  the  politics  of  the 

"tP  +H    c 
state  to  the  ethics  of  their  own  lives. 

Jesus  afforded  a  standing  illustration  of  His 
own  advice  by  His  marked  abstention  from 
politics.  His  attitude  is  not  only  unexpected, 
it  is  amazing  and  perplexing.  He  never  said 
one  word  against  the  Roman  domination  ;  He 
was  on  cordial  terms  with  Roman  officers  ;  He 
cast  His  shield  over  the  hated  publican ;  He 
tolerated  even  Herod  and  Pilate.  This  was 
not  an  accident ;  it  was  His  line.  When  clever 
tacticians  laid  a  trap  for  Him  and  pressed  Him 
for  a  confession  of  His  political  creed,  He 
escaped  by  telling  them  He  had  none.  Some 
things  were  civic,  some  religious.  Let  each 
sphere  be  kept  apart.  '  Render  unto  Caesar  the 
things  which  are  Caesar's,  and  unto  God  the 


328      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

things  which  are  God's :'  as  for  Him,  His  con- 
cern was  with  divine  things.  Jesus  was  so 
guarded  that  He  refused  to  arbitrate  in  a  dis- 
pute about  property — a  duty  now  greedily  un- 
dertaken by  His  servants.  When  He  stood 
before  Pilate,  on  the  day  of  the  cross,  He  told 
that  bewildered  officer  that  His  kingdom  was 
not  of  this  world,  and  did  not  give  him  the 
slightest  help  in  arranging  a  compromise. 

On  the  other  hand,  none  can  read  Jesus' 
words  without  being  perfectly  certain  that  they 
must  sooner  or  later  change  the  trend  of  poli- 
tics and  the  colour  of  the  state.  His  contempt- 
uous depreciation  of  the  world,  His  solemn 
appreciation  of  the  soul,  His  sense  of  the 
danger  of  riches,  His  doctrine  of  the  Father- 
hood of  God,  His  sympathy  with  the  poor,  His 
enthusiasm  of  humanity,  were  not  likely  to  re- 
turn unto  Him  void.  No  man  can  read  Jesus' 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  or  His  parables — largely 
taken  from  the  sphere  of  labour — or  His  argu- 
ments with  the  Pharisees,  without  being  leav- 
ened with  new  and  unworldly  ideas.  When 
these  ideas  have  taken  hold  of  the  mind,  they 
will  be  carried  as  principles  of  action  into  the 
state.  Moral  truths  ripen  slowly ;  but  given 


THE   KINGDOM   OF   GOD          329 

time,  and  Christianity  was  bound  to  become 
the  most  potent  force  in  the  state,  although 
Jesus  had  never  said  one  word  about  politics, 
and  His  apostles  had  adhered  closely  to  His 
example.  Men  who  have  been  fed  with 
Christ's  bread,  and  in  whose  heart  His  spirit  is 
striving,  will  not  long  tolerate  slavery,  tyranny, 
vice,  or  ignorance.  If  they  do  not  apply  the 
principle  to  the  fact  to-day,  they  will  to- 
morrow. Their  conscience  is  helpless  in  the 
grip  of  Christ's  word.  They  will  be  con- 
strained to  labour  in  the  cause  of  Christ,  and 
when  their  work  is  done  men  will  praise  them. 
It  is  right  that  they  should  receive  their  crown, 
but  the  glory  does  not  belong  to  Hampden 
and  Howard  and  Wilberforce  and  Shaftesbury 
and  Lincoln  and  Gordon  ;  it  belongs  to  Jesus, 
who  stood  behind  these  great  souls  and  in- 
spired them.  He  never  assailed  Pilate  with 
bitter  invective,  or  any  other  person,  except  re- 
ligious hypocrites ;  He  never  hinted  at  an  in- 
surrection. But  it  is  Jesus,  more  than  any 
other  man  or  force,  that  has  made  Pilates  im- 
possible, and  taught  the  human  race  to  live 
and  die  for  freedom. 

Politics  are  after  all  only  a  necessary  machin- 


330      THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

ery ;  what  comes  first  is  ideas.  Just  as  there  is 
the  physical  which  we  see  and  handle,  and  the 
metaphysical  which  eye  has  not  seen  nor  ear 
heard,  so  there  is  the  political,  which  takes 
shape  in  government  and  legislatures  and  laws, 
and  there  is  the  meta-political — to  use  a  happy 
phrase  in  Lux  Mundi — which  is  before  all  and 
above  all,  or  politics  are  worthless.  And  just 
as  no  wise  physicist  rails  at  the  metaphysical 
because  it  cannot  be  weighed  in  scales,  but  freely 
acknowledges  that  it  is  the  spirit  of  the  ma- 
terial, so  every  one  knows  that  all  worthy 
politics  are  the  offspring  of  noble  ideas.  When 
Jesus  denied  Himself  to  politics,  He  did  not 
abdicate  His  Kingdom ;  He  set  up  His  throne 
above  all  the  world-kingdoms  and  entrenched 
it  among  the  principles  that  judge  and  govern 
life.  When  He  declined  to  agitate,  He  did  not 
abandon  the  people.  He  could  not,  for,  unlike 
many  of  their  pseudo-friends,  Jesus  loved  the 
people  unto  death.  But  He  had  a  wide  hori- 
zon. He  was  not  content  to  change  their  cir- 
cumstances, He  dared  to  attempt  something 
higher — to  change  theit  souls. 

Had  Jesus  depended  on  a  scheme  rather  than 
an  influence,  He  had  failed.     Imagine  if  He  had 


THE   KINGDOM   OF   GOD          331 

anticipated  the  fruits  of  Christianity,  and  asked 
the  world  to  accept  the  emancipation  of  the 
slave  and  the  equality  of  woman,  and  civil 
rights  and  religious  liberty,  Christianity  would 
have  been  crushed  at  its  birth.  It  would  have 
spelled  anarchy,  and  in  that  day  would  have 
been  anarchy.  With  the  slow,  sure  education 
of  centuries,  these  changes  have  come  to  be 
synonymous  with  righteousness.  Christianity 
may  be  to-day  pregnant  with  changes  for  which 
we  are  not  prepared.  They  will  come  to  birth 
bye-and-bye  and  find  people  prepared  for  them. 
What  to  our  fathers  would  have  seemed  a  rev- 
olution will  seem  to  our  children  a  regenera- 
tion. A  century  ago  a  slave-owner  would  have 
defended  himself  from  God's  Word,  to-day  he 
would  be  cast  headlong  out  of  the  Church. 
Yesterday  a  master  sweated  his  servants  with- 
out sense  of  wrong-doing,  to-day  he  is  ashamed. 
To-day  a  millionaire  is  respected  ;  there  are 
signs  that  in  future  years  a  man  leaving  a  huge 
fortune  will  be  thought  a  semi-criminal.  So 
does  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  spread  and  ferment. 
Christ  did  not  ask  for  power  to  make  laws,  He 
asked  for  a  few  men  to  train — for  soil  in  which 
to  sow  His  truth.  He  was  content  to  wait  till 


332       THE   MIND   OF   THE    MASTER 

a  generation  arose,  and  said,  '  Before  God  this 
must  be  done/  and  then  it  would  be  done  as 
Jesus  intended.  Possess  the  imagination  with 
an  ideal,  and  one  need  not  vex  himself  about 
action. 

Jesus  laid  Himself  alongside  sinful  people, 
and  out  of  them  He  slowly  built  up  the  new 
kingdom.  If  a  man  was  a  formalist,  he  must 
be  born  again  ;  if  the  slave  of  riches,  he  must 
sell  all  he  had  ;  if  in  the  toils  of  a  darling  sin, 
he  must  pluck  out  his  right  eye  to  enter  the 
kingdom  of  God.  New  men  to  make  a  new 
state.  The  kingdom  was  humility,  purity,  gen- 
erosity, unselfishness.  It  was  the  reign  of 
character;  it  was  the  struggle  for  perfection. 
Chunder  Sen,  the  Indian  prophet,  described 
Jesus'  Kingdom  perfectly  :  '  A  spiritual  congre- 
gation of  souls  born  anew  to  God.'  Say  not, 
'  Lo  here,  lo  there,'  as  if  one  could  see  a  system 
or  a  government.  '  The  kingdom  of  God  is 
within  you.' 

Investigate  a  little  farther,  and  you  notice 
that  Jesus  fused  His  disciples  into  one  body, 
and,  by  this  act  alone,  separated  Himself  from 
the  method  of  philosophy.  Philosophy  is  con- 
tent with  an  audience  ;  Jesus  demands  a  soci- 


333 

ety.  Philosophy  teaches  men  to  think  ;  Jesus 
moves  them  to  do.  Philosophy  can  do  no  more 
because  it  has  no  centre  of  unity  :  the  king- 
dom of  God  is  richer,  for  there  is  Jesus.  Soc- 
rates obliterated  himself;  Jesus  asserted  Him- 
self, and  united  His  followers  to  each  other  by 
binding  them  to  Himself.  Loyalty  to  Jesus 
was  to  be  the  spinal  cord  to  the  new  body,  and 
the  sacraments  were  to  be  the  signs  of  the  new 
spirit.  Each  was  perfect  in  its  simplicity — a 
beautiful  poem.  One  was  Baptism,  where  the 
candidate  for  God's  kingdom  disappeared  into 
water  and  appeared  again  with  another  name. 
This  meant  that  he  had  died  to  self  and  had 
risen  a  new  creature,  the  child  of  the  Divine 
Will.  The  other  was  the  Lord's  Supper,  where 
Jesus'  disciple  eats  bread  and  drinks  wine  in 
remembrance  of  His  death.  This  meant  that 
he  had  entered  into  the  spirit  of  his  Master 
and  given  himself  to  the  service  of  the  world. 
Those  are  the  only  rites  of  Jesus,  those  His 
bonds,  and  with  this  lowly  equipment — two 
pledges  of  sacrifice — began  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  Within  all  nations,  and  under  the 
shadow  of  all  governments,  dividing  none,  re- 
sisting none,  winning  all  and  uniting  all,  was 


334       THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER 

to   rise  the  new  state  of  peace  and  goodwill 
toward  men. 

How  was  the  kingdom  to  impress  itself  upon 
the  world  and  change  the  colour  of  human  life  ? 
As  Jesus  did  Himself,  and  after  no  other  fash- 
ion. Of  all  conquerors  He  has  had  the  high- 
est ambition,  and  above  them  all  He  has  seen 
His  desire.  He  has  dared  to  demand  men's 
hearts  as  well  as  their  lives  and  has  won  them 
— how  ?  By  coercion  ?  by  stratagem  ?  by  clever- 
ness ?  by  splendour?  By  none  of  those  means 
that  have  been  used  by  rules.  By  a  scheme  of 
his  own  invention — by  the  Cross.  The  Cross 
meant  the  last  devotion  to  humanity ;  it  was 
the  pledge  of  the  most  uncomplaining  and 
effectual  ministry.  When  you  inquire  the  re- 
sources of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  behold  the 
Cross.  They  are  faith  and  love.  Its  soldiers 
are  the  humble,  the  meek,  the  gentle,  the  peace- 
ful. '  Forgive  your  enemies,'  said  Jesus  ;  '  help 
the  miserable,  restore  the  fallen,  set  the  captive 
free.  Love  as  I  have  loved,  and  you  will  suc- 
ceed.' Amazing  simplicity !  amazing  origi- 
nality !  Hitherto  kingdoms  had  stood  on  the 
principle  of  selfishness — grasp  and  keep.  This 


THE    KINGDOM   OF   GOD  335 

kingdom  was  to  rest  on  sacrifice — suffer  and 
serve.  Amazing  hope,  that  anything  so  weak, 
so  helpless,  could  regenerate  the  masterful 
world  !  But  Jesus  has  not  been  put  to  shame  : 
His  plan  has  not  failed.  There  are  many  em- 
pires on  the  face  of  the  earth  to-day,  but  none 
so  dominant  as  the  kingdom  of  God.  Jesus  by 
the  one  felicitous  stroke  of  the  Cross  has  re- 
placed the  rule  of  rights  by  the  idea  of  sacri- 
fice ;  and  when  Jesus'  mind  has  obtained  every- 
where, and  the  men  cease  to  ask,  '  What  am  I 
to  get/  and  begin  to  say,  '  What  can  I  give,' 
then  we  shall  see  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  ,  . 
wherein  dwelleth  righteousness.  Qt-^  • 

It  was  natural  that  the  imagination  of  Jesus 
should  inspire  heroic  souls  in  every  age ;  it  was 
perhaps  inevitable  that  few  could  enter  into 
His  mind.  Nothing  has  given  such  a  moral 
impetus  to  human  society ;  nothing  has  con- 
ferred such  nobility  of  character  as  the  King- 
dom of  God ;  nothing  has  been  so  sadly  mis- 
understood. The  sublime  self-restraint  of 
Jesus,  His  inexhaustible  patience,  His  immov- 
able charity,  His  unerring  insight,  did  not  de- 
scend to  certain  of  His  disciples.  They  longed 


336       THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER 

to  anticipate  the  victory  of  righteousness,  and 
burned  to  cleanse  the  world  by  force.  Such 
eager  souls  gained  for  themselves  an  imperish- 
able name,  but  they  failed.  When  the  Roman 
Empire  was  laid  waste,  and  the  world  seemed 
to  be  falling  to  pieces,  St.  Augustine  described 
the  new  empire  that  should  rise  on  the  ashes  of 
the  old.  The  City  of  God  stands  first  among 
his  writings,  and  created  the  Holy  Roman  Em- 
pire, but  the  Papacy  has  not  redeemed  human- 
ity. When  the  life  of  Florence  was  eaten  out 
by  the  Medicis,  Savonarola  purified  the  city  for 
a  space  with  a  thunderstorm.  The  Florentines 
cast  out  their  Herods  at  the  bidding  of  their 
Baptist,  they  burned  their  vanities  in  the  mar- 
ket-place, they  elected  Jesus  King  of  Florence 
by  acclamation.  In  a  little  they  brought  Herod 
back,  and  burned  the  Baptist  in  the  same 
market-place.  The  Puritans  were  at  first  quiet, 
serious,  peaceable  men  who  were  outraged  by 
the  reign  of  unrighteousness,  and  drew  the 
sword  to  deliver  England.  They  made  the 
host  of  God  triumphant  for  a  little.  Then 
came  the  reaction,  and  iniquity  covered  the 
land  as  with  a  flood.  It  was  high  failure,  but 


THE   KINGDOM   OF   GOD          337 

it  was  failure.  It  does  not  become  us  to  criti- 
cise those  forlorn  hopes ;  we  ought  to  learn 
from  their  reverses.  The  Kingdom  of  God  can 
only  rule  over  willing  hearts  ;  it  has  no  helots 
within  its  borders.  It  advances  by  individual 
conversion,  it  stands  in  individual  consecration. 
Laws  can  do  but  little  for  this  cause;  the  sword 
less  than  nothing.  The  kingdom  will  come  in 
a  land  when  it  has  come  in  the  hearts  of  the 
people — neither  sooner  nor  later. 

The  Kingdom  of  God  cometh  to  a  man  when 
he  sets  up  Jesus'  Cross  in  his  heart,  and  begins 
to  live  what  Mr.  Laurence  Oliphant  used  to 
call  '  the  life.'  It  passes  on  its  way  when  that 
man  rises  from  table  and  girds  himself  and 
serves  the  person  next  him.  Yesterday  the 
kingdom  was  one  man ;  now  it  is  a  group. 
From  the  one  who  washes  to  the  one  whose 
feet  are  washed  the  kingdom  grows  and  multi- 
plies. It  stands  around  us  on  every  side, — 
not  in  Pharisees  nor  in  fanatics,  not  in  noise 
nor  tumult,  but  in  modest  and  Christ-like  men. 
One  can  see  it  in  their  faces,  and  catch  it  in  the 
tone  of  their  voices.  And  if  one  has  eyes  to 
see  and  ears  to  hear,  then  let  him  be  of  good 
Y 


338      THE   MIND   OF   THE   MASTER 

cheer,  for  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  come.  It  is 
the  world-wide  state,  whose  law  is  the  Divine 
will,  whose  members  obey  the  spirit  of  Jesus, 
whose  strength  is  goodness,  whose  heritage  is 
God. 


THE  END. 


A     0001 68  4£ 


